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| Sideling Hill | |
|---|---|
_from_the_Victor_Cushwa_Memorial_Bridge_as_it_passes_through_the_Sideling_Hill_Road_Cut_in_Forest_Park%2c_Washington_County%2c_Maryland.jpg) Interstate 68 road cut in Sideling Hill inWestern Maryland | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 2,311 ft (704 m) |
| Prominence | 280 |
| Coordinates | 40°00′32″N78°07′46″W / 40.0090°N 78.1295°W /40.0090; -78.1295 at Fisher Point |
| Geography | |
 | |
| Location | West Virginia,Maryland, andPennsylvania, U.S. |
| Parent range | Ridge-and-Valley province,Appalachian Mountains |
| Topo map | USGS Wells Tannery |
Sideling Hill, alsoSide Long Hill,[1] is a long, steep, narrow mountain ridge in theRidge-and-Valley (orAllegheny Mountains)physiographic province of theAppalachian Mountains, located inWashington County in westernMaryland and adjacentWest Virginia andPennsylvania,United States. The highest point on the ridge isFisher Point, at 2,310 feet (700 m)[2] inFulton County, Pennsylvania.[1]
Sideling Hill is asyncline mountain, in a region of downward-folded (synclinal)rock strata between two upfoldedanticlines. The ridge is capped by anerosion-resistantconglomerate andsandstone ofMississippian (earlyCarboniferous) geologic age, thePurslane Sandstone of the Pocono Formation. The ridge's slopes are formed of much more easily eroded kinds of rock, including theDevonian-MississippianRockwell Formation, with long, narrow valleys paralleling the ridge on either side.
Most of the crest of Sideling Hill is forested, primarily with variousdeciduous tree species such asoaks (Quercus) andhickories (Carya), along with occasionalevergreenpines (Pinus).
Only a few major highways, one active railroad and two former ones, and one former canal cross this steep mountain ridge.
TheEast Broad Top Railroad constructed atunnel through Sideling Hill in 1873–1874 as part of its mainline construction. The tunnel predates theSouth Pennsylvania Railroad tunnel construction 11 miles (18 km) to the south by eight years. The tunnel is single-tracked, and curved at each end. It originally had a stone portal on its eastern (RR North) end and a natural stone portal at its western (RR South) end, but about 1919 the north portal was replaced with a concrete one.
The north portal was equipped with doors to prevent wind from blowing through the tunnel as the wind caused water percolating into the tunnel to freeze on the tracks in the winter. In 1911, this ice caused the brand new locomotive #12 to derail its pilot axle inside the tunnel then derail the entire locomotive at the Kimmel switch just beyond the tunnel. In the 1940s, the doors were equipped with remote actuators mounted on poles a few hundred feet before each portal. This allowed the crews to open and close the doors without stopping. The system did not work flawlessly and a door was ripped off by acaboose cupola.
The tunnel was in service from 1874 until the railroad ceased operations in 1956. The line is technically out of service (but not abandoned), and the track is still in place through the tunnel, although not serviceable. The tunnel and rail line are private property and not open to the public.
ThePennsylvania Turnpike (Interstate 76, I-76) crosses Sideling Hill east ofBreezewood, Pennsylvania, bypassing the two-laneSideling Hill Tunnel and the nearbyRays Hill Tunnel that were formerly used by the Turnpike. Completed at a cost of $17,203,000, the Sideling Hill bypass opened on November 26, 1968, and the former alignment through the tunnels became known as theAbandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike. A rest area next to the ridge was a stop on Bill Clinton and Al Gore's post-convention bus tour in 1992.
TheSideling Hill Tunnel, through Sideling Hill inPennsylvania east ofBreezewood, is currently in its third phase of life. In the 1880s, a tunnel was partially bored through the mountain by theSouth Pennsylvania Railroad. The railroad project ceased, and the tunnel was left abandoned. When construction of thePennsylvania Turnpike was begun in the 1930s by thePennsylvania Turnpike Commission on theright-of-way of the South Pennsylvania Railroad, the tunnel was completed for highway use by the turnpike.[citation needed]
The tunnel, the longest of the seven original turnpike tunnels at 6,782 feet (2,067 m) long, was used from the turnpike's opening in 1940 until 1968. Due to increasing traffic on the highway, the turnpike commission began upgrading all of its two-lane tunnels, constructing twin bores for its tunnels through the Allegheny, Tuscarora, Kittatinny, and Blue mountains, and bypassing the tunnels under Laurel Hill, Rays Hill, and Sideling Hill with new, six-lane highways climbing the adjacent hills. The Sideling Hill Tunnel and the nearby Rays Hill tunnel, along with connecting segments of four-lane highway, were used for many years as a testing facility for new highway technologies.[citation needed]
In 2001, the Sideling Hill Tunnel was sold for $1 to theSouthern Alleghenies Conservancy, which now operates it as a bike trail.[3]
The Sideling HillRoad Cut onI-68 andUS 40 is a 340-foot-deep (100 m) notch excavated from the ridge of Sideling Hill, about five miles (8.0 km) west ofHancock inWashington County, Maryland. Blasting was completed in August 1984.[4] It is notable as an impressive man-made mountain pass, visible from miles away, and is considered to be one of the best rock exposures in Maryland and the entire northeastern United States.[5] Almost 810 feet (250 m)[5] ofstrata in a tightly foldedsyncline are exposed in this road cut. Although other exposures may surpass Sideling Hill in either thickness of exposed strata or in quality of geologic structure, few can equal its combination of both.[5] The exposed rocks consist of theDevonian-MississippianRockwell Formation, underlying the MississippianPurslane Sandstone.
A highway rest stop, located near the eastern side of the Sideling Hill Road Cut on I-68 west of Hancock, includes a pedestrian bridge crossing I-68, connecting the eastbound and westbound rest areas and offering views of the cut, in which stopping is prohibited.
The rest stop formerly included the Sideling Hill Exhibit Center, a four-level geological museum and travel information center which opened in 1991. Due to state budget cuts, this facility was closed on August 15, 2009, as part of a $280 million budget reduction package, saving the state about $110,000 annually. Before its closing, the center served about 95,000 visitors a year.[6] Many of the geological exhibits from the former Exhibit Center are now displayed at the Hancock Museum in nearbyHancock, Maryland.[5][7]
The former exhibit center building was reopened as a welcome center on October 9, 2015. Only part of the facility is open, with the former exhibit center exhibits remaining at the Hancock Museum.[8]
Before construction of I-68,US 40 (now US 40 Scenic), theNational Road, crossed Sideling Hill with a steep grade on each side and a sharphairpin turn at the crest of the mountain.
Thewater gap cut through Sideling Hill by thePotomac River southwest (upstream) ofHancock, Maryland, provides a low-level crossing of the ridge for theCSX Railroad, formerly the main line of theBaltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad, on the southern (West Virginia) side of the river, and on the northern (Maryland) side, the formerChesapeake and Ohio Canal, now anational historical park, and the formerWestern Maryland Railroad (now arail trail).
Media related toSideling Hill at Wikimedia Commons