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Bankhead Tunnel

Tunnel in Alabama

Summary

Tunnel in Alabama

Field	Value
name	Bankhead Tunnel
image	Bankhead Tunnel Going West.jpg
image_size	300
caption	The eastern entrance on Blakeley Island
official_name	John H. Bankhead Tunnel
location	Mobile River, Mobile, Alabama
coordinates
route
opened	February 20, 1941
(built 1938-1942)
traffic	28,140 (2015)
character	submerged road tunnel
toll	1941 to mid-1970s
length	3389 ft
lanes	2
height	12 ft
width	21 ft
extra
map	[[File: Map_Mobile_River_tunnels_area.gif	250px	center	Route map]]

(built 1938-1942)

The Bankhead Tunnel, formally the John H. Bankhead Tunnel, is a road tunnel in Mobile, Alabama that carries Government Street under the Mobile River from Blakeley Island to the downtown Mobile business district. "Mobile City Guide" (map, landmarks), AARoads, February 2011, webpage: SER-Bankhead. "Frequently Asked Questions - Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce" (notes), Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, 2006, webpage: MCCOM-FAQ . It is named for John H. Bankhead, an Alabama politician and U.S. Senator (served 1907-1920) who was also the grandfather of actress Tallulah Bankhead. It, like the larger George Wallace Tunnel (built 1969-1973) a few blocks downriver from it, was constructed in Mobile at the shipyards of the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company (ADDSCO), from 1938-1940.

History

The western entrance in downtown Mobile.

The tunnel was built in sections and floated to the proper positions, then sunk. Each section was sunk next to the previous section and joined underwater. When all sections were connected, and concrete set into place, they were pumped dry and finished out. The depth of clearance is 40 ft (12.2 m) for the ship channel over the tunnel. It was completed in 1940 at a cost of $4 million and opened to the public on February 20, 1941. A toll fee was charged at the east side, from 1941 to the mid-1970s, when the toll plaza was dismantled. The tube carries two lanes of travel, and no pedestrian or non-motorized vehicular traffic is permitted.

The tunnel was designed by Oliver Fowlkes and construction directed by Wayne Palmer of Mobile. Only passenger cars and pickup trucks are still allowed to travel through the tunnel, as it is very narrow. Large trucks can use the George Wallace Tunnel on Interstate 10 a few blocks to the south. However, trucks with hazardous cargo must use the Cochrane–Africatown USA Bridge (U.S. 90/U.S. 98 Truck) a few miles to the north.

Filming location

The tunnel was the location of a scene in the 1977 blockbuster Close Encounters of the Third Kind by director Steven Spielberg, a film which was primarily filmed in the Mobile area. In this particular scene Roy Neary, played by Richard Dreyfuss, drives through the tunnel as he chases UFOs.

The tunnel was later featured during a motorcycle chase scene in the 1991 film Stone Cold, starring Brian Bosworth.

References

"Properties on the Alabama Register of Landmarks & Heritage". www.preserveala.org.
Bloom, Nedra. (November 2018). "The Second Century Begins 1936–61". Mobile Chamber of Commerce.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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