One of our state’s most prominent landmarks, the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels, is having an anniversary. (It was first called the “Straight Creek Tunnel,” then the “Eisenhower Tunnel,” then “Johnson” was added.) Fifty years ago, just after New Year’s Day in 1968, we began work on the tunnel. As members of the five-man “bull crew,” we entered the pilot bore, a small tunnel that was bored, probably in the 1940s, to estimate the feasibility of an automobile tunnel. We shored up support beams, straightened and repaired a decrepit railroad track while water dripped onto our hardhats and our yellow “diggers” — rubberized suits worn over our layered clothes. Later, we cut three crosscut tunnels, took core samples for the geologists and engineers, and in the early spring set off the first blast of dynamite from the west side to begin boring the first tunnel. Millions of dollars, thousands of workers, years of sweat and blood, it began 50 years ago when traffic was much simpler.
dzٱԲ, Aurora
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