Off to the Hills 7 



rugged portion of Berkshire. The Hoosac proper is 

 formed at the junction of these two streams, in the 

 vicinity of the Print Works near Marshall Street in the 

 city, and flows on gently in a northwesterly course to 

 join the Hudson, near lyansingburg. Mountain streams 

 in this region are numerous, and flow musically down 

 through deep chasms and over great marble precipices, 

 to swell the Hoosac as it glides slowly out through the 

 deep-cut valley. 



" We Hold the Western Gateway," is part of the in- 

 scription on the seal of the city of North Adams, which 

 is known as the "Tunnel City." This is practically 

 true, for the sole gateway of the trade from the Western 

 States passes though the flinty wall of the Hoosac 

 Mountain, in order to reach Boston direct. The idea 

 of opening a path for transit through the " Forbidden 

 Mountain," as the Indians called it, was conceived six 

 years after the first mail-coach and four-in-hand rattled 

 through the street of this town to Greenfield, in 1814. 

 It was found impossible to build the projected canal 

 from Boston to Albany. The estimated cost of build- 

 ing the tunnel was less than two million dollars, but 

 when it was completed in 1875, the total financial out- 

 lay had amounted to over twenty millions. Until Jan- 

 uary I, 1887, this tunnel was owned by the State of 

 Massachusetts, when it was purchased by the Fitchburg 

 Railroad. It is four and three fourths miles long, and 

 twenty-six feet wide, permitting of double tracks. The 

 arch is from twenty-two to twenty-six feet high, and 

 at each portal there is a massive granite facade. 



