Kennedy Tunnel/Old CA 24

[Max Rockatansky]

I paid a visit to the site of the western portal of the Kennedy Tunnel this morning in the Berkeley Hills of Oakland.  The timber lined Kennedy Tunnel opened in 1903 and drastically cut the travel time between Oakland-Lafayette.  The single land Kennedy Tunnel was lit in 1914.

The Kennedy Tunnel was never truly adequate for the increasing demands of automotive traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area.  The Kennedy Tunnel was eventually added to the State Highway System in 1931 as part of Legislative Route 75.  In October of 1935 the Kennedy Tunnel became part of California State Route 24 when it was extended to the San Francisco Bay Area.  The Caldecott Tunnel opened in 1937 which replaced the Kennedy Tunnel and saw the realignment of CA 24.

After the opening of the Caldecott Tunnel the Kennedy Tunnel was closed to automotive traffic.  The Kennedy Tunnel was closed for good in 1947 due to repeated cave-ins.  The Kennedy Tunnel collapsed completely during the 1960s leaving only Tunnel Road and it's median with Skyline Boulevard as the only evidence of the western portal. 

Photo 1:  The median at the intersection of Tunnel Road and Skyline Boulevard facing east towards where the Kennedy Tunnel once was located.

IMG_3400 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Photo 2:  The original plaque dedicating the Kennedy Tunnel located in the Tunnel Road/Skyline Boulevard Median.

IMG_3398 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Photo 3-4:  The Kennedy Tunnel plaque facing east to where the Kennedy Tunnel was located.

IMG_3394 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_3396 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Photo 5:  A look towards the site of the western portal of the Kennedy Tunnel.

IMG_3391 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

The 1935 Division of Highways Map of Alameda County which shows Tunnel Road and the Kennedy Tunnel under State Maintenance as Legislative Route 75/California State Route 24.

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~247257~5515341:Alameda-County-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:california%20division%20of%20highways%20alameda;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=2

[M3100]

Max - Interesting - picture 5, hard to tell a tunnel was there in the past.
Pictures 2 and 3 are the same - did you intend a different plaque for picture 2?

[Max Rockatansky]

Max - Interesting - picture 5, hard to tell a tunnel was there in the past.
Pictures 2 and 3 are the same - did you intend a different plaque for picture 2?

Yes, picture 2 was supposed to be a zoomed out view of the plaque and tunnel portal location.  I'll fix it when I get to my computer. 

[skluth]

There is also evidence of the tunnel's path on the Google Maps default (map) display. You can see some property lines on either side of the ROW at the west end and a vegetation (park?) cutout at the east end. Not really useful. I just found it interesting.

[Max Rockatansky]

There is also evidence of the tunnel's path on the Google Maps default (map) display. You can see some property lines on either side of the ROW at the west end and a vegetation (park?) cutout at the east end. Not really useful. I just found it interesting.

I forget the name but the eastern portal is part of a regional park.  At the western portal there is a very obvious break in the vegetation from the home on Tunnel Road from the west portal entrance. 

[kkt]

Neat!  My grandparents moved to Lafayette a little after WW II, probably 1947.  My uncle claimed to have snuck into the old tunnel with friends when he was in high school, which would have been late 1950s.  (However, also possible that he was putting me on.)

Did they say why it was named the Kennedy Tunnel?

[Kniwt]

Did they say why it was named the Kennedy Tunnel?

https://localwiki.org/oakland/Kennedy_Tunnel

It was referred to as the Kennedy Tunnel for L. W. Kennedy, who is said to have first conceived the idea of a toll road and tunnel between the counties. He started a company which built a road and began work on a tunnel, but "Work was begun upon the hole in the hill, but a rush of water was struck to the extent that it collapsed the tunnel and the company at the same time." Note that other sources claim that Wright F. Kelsey was the first to propose building a tunnel between the counties.

[Max Rockatansky]

Neat!  My grandparents moved to Lafayette a little after WW II, probably 1947.  My uncle claimed to have snuck into the old tunnel with friends when he was in high school, which would have been late 1950s.  (However, also possible that he was putting me on.)

Apparently it was possible, I've heard of a lot of similar stories before it finally caved in for good.

[kkt]

Thank you

[Max Rockatansky]

Found a couple CHPW articles related to the Kennedy Tunnel and Caldecott Tunnel.

May 1934

https://archive.org/details/californiahighwa193436calirich/page/n163/mode/2up?q=Tunnel

-  This is a conceptual article which shows the Caldecott Tunnel (shown as Broadway Low Level Tunnel) in relation to the existing Kennedy Tunnel. 

There is a second article in the same volume about a $700,000 state contribution which includes information about Old Tunnel Road:

https://archive.org/details/californiahighwa193436calirich/page/n177/mode/2up?q=Tunnel


July 1934

The opening ground breaking ceremony for the Alameda-Contra Costa Tunnel:

https://archive.org/details/californiahighwa193436calirich/page/n235/mode/2up?q=Tunnel


December 1937

This article details the opening of the Broadway/Caldecott Tunnel:

https://archive.org/details/california193638highwacalirich/page/n589/mode/2up?q=Caldecott

[Max Rockatansky]

The Kennedy Tunnel, now on the Gribblenation blog series:

https://www.gribblenation.org/2021/01/former-california-state-route-24.html