TODAY! 8th St. Tunnel Tour!

[snarf]

Didn't Chastain's plans call for a gondola?  Maybe a haunted gondola ride threw the tunnel to the haunted houses in the West Bottoms.

[PumpkinStalker]

Didn't Chastain's plans call for a gondola?  Maybe a haunted gondola ride threw the tunnel to the haunted houses in the West Bottoms.

Now THAT would be kick ass!!! 

[Theiler]

I do have the business card for the guy that gave us the tour, and I asked if I were to get a group together if he will give special tours and he said yes, as long as there is interest he will do them.

I stayed for almost the entire time from 11:00 to 1:30 and I estimate about 100 people came to see the tunnel.  Not bad for a "forgotten" piece of history eh?

I've read about this tunnel some over the last few years.  If we ever do a forum tour... or get any group together... I'm down. (no pun intended... okay, yes it was)  Just PLEASE don't do it while I'm in Columbia...  maybe a weekend when I can come home, or the summer, or winter break, ha

[KC0KEK]

What's with all of the tunnel tours lately? There have been several around the country in the past few weeks. Here's one in NYC: www.lioddities.com/forums/index.php?topic=5932.0.

[anniewarbucks]

Probably because people want to see what has been hidden for so long. It is like what happened here in Topeka when they started to rip open some of the apartments downtown after being sealed off for a long time. The reaction is basically the same. They say "Well I did not know this was there.". It is almost like finding a needle in a haystack or a diamond in the rough. These little treasures are a huge draw for a lot of people.

[FangKC]

There have also been several shows on underground parts of cities on PBS and other cable shows.  People are fascinated with that kind of stuff.

[bbqboy]

OK, I'll bite. What was there?

[anniewarbucks]

There does not have to be any thing fantastic on these tours. one of the biggest thing in a tour of one of the Ripleys tour is an attraction called See The Egress. not knowing that the word egress means exit they will just walk out the door of which locks in back of them. They all of a sudden find themselves outside in the alley and have to start the tour all over again. 

[PumpkinStalker]

OK, I'll bite. What was there?

I asked if they found any neat old stuff in the tunnel such as old whiskey bottles, etc.  He said the railroad ties and track were all in tact, but were removed due to saftey and the fact that 100 year old railroad ties were soaked in some pretty potent preservative.

No old artifacts that he was aware of...and he was pretty well connected to its discovery and continued maintenance.

[KC0KEK]

Was Snake Guy down there?

[PumpkinStalker]

Was Snake Guy down there?

Fill me in....

[KC0KEK]

It's a joke. Snake Guy is a person who posts on here out of the blue, to the amusement of some people.

[jlbomega]

So.. does anyone have a map or can they explain where/how far this tunnel goes?

[PumpkinStalker]

So.. does anyone have a map or can they explain where/how far this tunnel goes?

See this...
http://www.kchistory.org/cdm4/item_view ... OX=1&REC=1

And this...
http://www.kchistory.org/cdm4/results.p ... eet+Tunnel

If you can make it to the downtown library, they have a vertical file you can have pulled in the Missouri Valley Room on the 5th floor.  It has newspaper articles of its original discovery and more.  You can also do pretty extensive research online now that they have their new Local History Database up and running.

[FangKC]

8th Street Tunnel

Kansas City had mule and horse-draw trams, cable cars, a funicular rail tram, and electric streetcars and buses, a subway, and an elevated rail through the West Bottoms to Kansas City, Kansas.  The ramp from Union Depot to the tunnel was referred to as "The Chute."  The tunnel was called "mushroom tunnel."














The tunnel trench

---

Broadway & 8th Street 

The four buildings at the intersection of 8th and Broadway in this 1907 post card looking east originally were those of Swofford Bros. Dry Goods Company built in 1899 on the northeast corner; Burnham, Hanna, Munger Dry Goods Company built in 1901 by Washington University of St. Louis, on the southeast corner; Faxon Horton Gallagher Company built in 1903 on the northwest corner; Harvey-Dutton Dry Goods Company built in 1903 on the southwest corner.

Today the sites, recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places, are occupied respectively by Folger Coffee Company, H.T. Poindexter & Sons, Eisen Buildings and the Kansas City Carnival Supply Company.

The cable car tracks shown slope down to the opening of a tunnel which pierced the west bluffs (sometimes called the Kersey Coates bluff) and carried the heavy traffic between Kansas City's business district and the West Bottoms, Union Depot and Kansas City, Kansas. The Intercity Viaduct had not yet been built.

The tunnel, built in 1888, was the project of Robert Gillham, to get people from the West Bottoms uptown and back again, a cause to which he devoted much of his life. It was about a fourth of a mile long and 18 feet wide, 12 feet tall and 900 feet long. A powerhouse for the original cable cars was located at the opposite or west end of the tunnel. The original cost was $500,000.

Arriving at the far side of the tunnel at the depot, a long winding ramp resembling a cattle chute served as the pedestrian access to the streetcar station at the depot. Its wooden walls, painted red, resounded to the echoes of hurrying feet and eager voices, raised high in the excitement of arrival and departure, in farewells and greetings, wrote an early-day journalist.

The tunnel was used extensively by cable and later electric streetcars until 1923. The only other connecting links to the West Bottoms were cable cars operating on steeper grades at 9th and 12th Streets.

The tunnel was closed in 1923 because of the dangerous conditions of the old L structure at the west end. It had served the public for 35 years.

Businessmen demanded repairs and five years later it was re-opened for use. On Feb. 19, 1928, a luncheon was held to celebrate the re-opening with an attendance of over 200. Powell G. Groner of the Kansas City Public Service Company was the speaker at the event held at the Hotel Muehlebach.

An honored guest was J.H. Kerby, a banker from Clay Center, Kan., who as a boy had driven a dappled team and a clumsy wagon all the way to Kansas City. The lure was a report that men could make as much as $4 a day by using their teams to haul earth out of the new tunnel. Young Kerby had driven out with the first load of dirt. He recalled adventures and incidents of the day.

Today the tunnel is closed and only a blank stone retaining wall remains at the rear of a parking lot at 8th and Washington. The west end of the opening is also blocked.

Concrete perimeters of the old tunnel, as pictured in the foreground of the post card picture, have been removed and 8th Street, now widened, graded and refinished, extends west from Broadway to Washington.

Kansas City Times
April 18, 1980

Author Ray, Mrs. Sam (Mildred) 

[KCAppraiser]

Why did State Street spend money to install the walkway?

[anniewarbucks]

I asked if they found any neat old stuff in the tunnel such as old whiskey bottles, etc.  He said the railroad ties and track were all in tact, but were removed due to saftey and the fact that 100 year old railroad ties were soaked in some pretty potent preservative.

No old artifacts that he was aware of...and he was pretty well connected to its discovery and continued maintenance.

Most of the old ties were treated wi8th arsenic a very poisonous substance.

[kc-vino]

So when is the next tour going to happen?  I'm very interested. Or can I have the contact information for the individual to contact myself and inquire.  Great information brought to the forefront. 

[PumpkinStalker]

I had his business card, but I moved and seemed to have lost it.

I remember this:

His name is Julian Alvarez, really nice guy.  Used to be employed by State Street, but now works for someone else, however still has contacts at State Street and organizes the tours.  I would suggest going into the main lobby where the guard desk is and inquiring. 

[KCMax]

Commuter City: Digging Deep, Location: 8th Street Tunnel

One could get on the cable car at the West Bottoms, come out for a full day of shopping on Broadway, and enjoy the comfort of the train without the worries of parking or automobile traffic on the way back home. The commute and the leisure activities could be precisely calculated in accordance with the cable car schedule, without the unexpected delays experienced by commuters traveling in individual automobiles.