Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Part
Title
FLEMING-203 Front
Date(s)
- c. 1916 (Creation)
Extent
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
- The Mitchell's Point Tunnel was blasted through solid rock 95 feet above the Columbia River. Its five windows, carved through basaltic rock, afforded a scenic view of the Columbia River Gorge. The Mitchell's Point Tunnel was a prominent feature of the Columbia River Highway, now known as the Historic Columbia River Highway. This famous roadway stretched 125 miles along the Oregon side of the Columbia River between Portland and The Dalles. The road is recognized as an engineering marvel and as America's first scenic highway. By the 1930s, the tunnel was considered inadequate for modern traffic. A wider, river-level route (now designated U.S. Route 30) was built at the base of Mitchell Point around 1937. The five famous windows were bricked up, the tunnel filled with rock, and the viaducts leading to the tunnel were blocked. The once-celebrated tunnel remained abandoned, but intact, until 1966 when the Mitchell Point Tunnel was destroyed during the widening of Interstate 84. circa 1916.
- Printed on front: Daylighted tunnel at Mitchell's Point, Columbia River Highway, Oregon