11 October 2005
Hope: More Than Just a Crossroads Along the Way
Hope - (exerpts) This historic little town in the shadow of Mount Hope less than a
two-hour drive from Vancouver.
One of Hope's most beautiful attractions of all, however, is absolutely free. It's called the Othello Tunnels - four abandoned railway
tunnels that were originally blasted through the granite cliffs of the Coquihalla River gorge as part of the old Kettle Valley Railway
in 1916.
Andrew McCulloch, the brilliant engineer who masterminded their construction, named them after Othello because he was a lifelong fan of
Shakespeare and had already named a number of other stations and bridges along the line after such Shakespearean notables as Lear, Iago,
Portia, and Romeo and Juliet.
The craggy tunnels, which are only about half a kilometre long altogether, were the final link in the 475-km railway from
Midway to Hope. They include two small bridges from which you can view the spectacular canyon walls above and the roaring, churning
Coquihalla River 20 to 30 metres below.
The walls of the canyon are at least 100 metres high, and McCulloch had to hang over the edge in a wicker basket to survey the gorge
for a straight line of tunnels that could be dug simultaneously. (Editor's note: This may be a long-standing myth.)
Cliff ladders, suspension bridges and tonnes of dynamite allowed workers to complete what is still considered one of the most
spectacular engineering feats in B.C. history.
You can get a detailed map with a fascinating thumbnail history of how they were built at the Visitor Info Centre in Hope, but the
tunnels are usually closed to the public from mid-November to April because of ice buildup.
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