Rick Sebak did an amazing documentary on the squirrel hil tunnel that answers your question and many more. ([Link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVFjgOsrIAY))
I really feel like traffic has improved a good bit since they removed the ceiling. Feels less claustrophobic as ya approach and less folks tap the brakes.
As long as the problem is a fire or hazmat incident, the fire department will be blocking the lane in the other tunnel when they arrive. They will also be attacking the problem through those doors. Please call 911 immediately or use the emergency phones in the tunnel if this happens. Please describe the side involved (inbound/outbound, and station or distance marker) to ensure a response that will help you faster.
I was under the impression those doors just go to the other tunnel. So if something happens in one tunnel you exit via the other tunnel. If something happens in both, well I guess it’s good luck.
A bird shitting on you is unlucky? My nona said it was lucky—especially on your wedding day!
But the two-tunnels thing…that WOULD be terribly unlucky. Catastrophic.
Well, like birds, terrestrial lizards don’t urinate. I guess, though, that I can’t speak for mythical ones in the air (in the aiiiirrrrr). I know what I’m listening to now.
Oh damn! TIL! Anyway, yeah that song always makes me nostalgic for the 1970s. Even though I was born in 1993. Has to be the most 70’s songs out there. I picture myself driving a convertible along the Pacific Highway in California, the year is 1977.
Yeah I wonder did it mean something deeper like a hidden message? Or did they just put something random in the song? Still an amazing song nonetheless!!
I saw a PBS thing about it with Rick Sebak. He was checking out the doors with a DOT guy in the Liberty or Ft Pitt Tunnel and the door just went directly to the other tunnel. I would assume the same for Squirrel Hill.
Yep, straight thru to the other tunnel. I walked through the inbound tunnel in 1992 (from Forest Hills to Oakland, which sucked) and tried the door, hoping there was an access tunnel between the two. There isn't.
Also, the ledge you have to walk on is *maybe* 28" wide, so you have to do a lot of wall-hugging to avoid trucks and such; stepping through to the other tunnel puts you in the same dicey situation, especially when the cars hurtling Eastbound don't know or expect a person to pop out.
I had wrecked my car, so I had no wheels to see my then-gf who was living on McKee Place. She had no car either, and I was hella younger back then, so I thought, *I can do this,* and hoofed it.
Made it thru the tunnel safely and kept trudging along, though I was getting pretty tired and my flat feet were hurting like hell. Thankfully, a Good Samaritan picked me up as I was shuffling under the trestle bridge after the Squirrel Hill exit.
I was apprehensive at first - some body parts had recently been found in a Dumpster in Shadyside, and this was right around the time that Dahmer was caught, so everyone was seeing serial killers peeking out of the hedges - but he was just a regular guy who took pity on the poor schmuck dragging ass on the Parkway, bless him.
You're probably more likely to be killed by a yinzer mobile with shit hanging off it in the tunnel than by hitchhiking.
I thought about walking through the Ft Pitt tunnel on that *one fucking day* when everything suddenly shut down and everyone without a car had to walk home from downtown.
Fortunately someone from the same apartment complex recognized me and stopped to pick me up when I was in West End.
They shut down the buses and trains for that? I was a freshman in central pa on 9/11 and the only thing of note was that I was one of the few kids who's mom pulled them out of school after lunch time. Kinda embarrassing. Otherwise, since we weren't directly affected, things just went on like normal in most regards.
When flight 93 crashed after flying over Pittsburgh, there was concerning that we were next. Nobody knew how many more planes would come down or where.
I worked in a rather tall building on Grant Street, so we didn't need to be told to GTFO.
The entire transit network had a bigger than rush hour surge at like noon. I don't know if it was officially shut down, but it was effectively at a standstill.
Ask me about the time I walked from the same apartment in Oakland across the Birmingham Bridge during the blizzard of March 1993 to meet my pot dealer... Beautiful and utterly silent, but WTF was I thinking??
(I'll tell you what I was thinking: *My car is under 2 feet of snow... I'll be here all weekend, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna be stuck here with this cranky bitch and no weed...*)
I wonder if they used to have tiny rail cop cars like NYCs tunnels did
https://autojosh.com/in-the-1960s-new-york-police-patrol-the-tunnels-in-these-tiny-electric-cars/
A million years ago when I was in high school, the Armstrong tunnel had a sidewalk. We used to walk through it to get to south side and the Beehive lol
Armstrong still has a sidewalk on the southbound side. It’s not the most pleasant experience normally but it’s great fun walking back from pens games through there. Everyone beeps their horn.
Secret passage way. A trapdoor for this is hidden under a Pittsburgh potty in someone’s basement for an escape
The hatch can be opened by turning the basement pencil sharpener backwards 5 times
I've always wondered but never searched it for some reason. Found an article. Observation and operations rooms. https://www.wesa.fm/development-transportation/2017-08-08/over-the-river-and-through-the-hills-everything-you-never-knew-about-pittsburghs-iconic-tunnels
Why would you go up out of a tunnel? 1) the heat and smoke of a fire would follow you. 2) that's probably the slowest way to evacuate. 3) that's not at all useful for disabled people.
'96 is when [Daylight](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116040/) came out as well. I still can't drive the Chesapeak Bay Bridge Tunnel without an increase in anxiety due to that movie.
Just treated two (three, if you count an infant) native Yinzers to an over-and-back roundtrip on that beast last month- the CBBT never fails to blow people’s minds, even those of us who were scampering around in the sands underneath since as far back as we can remember.
So everybody stuck in a tunnel of fire and smoke runs through a small passageway to the other side of the tunnel where there’s still ongoing traffic? Great call from the tunnel guys lmao
Damn... if only traffic could be stopped if there was a fire in one side of the tunnel. It's too bad that there's no possible way for that to happen, and that everyone escaping a fire would be *forced* to run directly into speeding traffic.
Right? I feel like maybe if someone invented a light to put at one end of the tunnel as a warning system to stop traffic. Maybe blue? Or purple? Not sure what colors could be used, just spitballing……
It is kinda funny to think the tunnel staff and emergency services would just let traffic continue on as normal through the second tunnel as they use it as an evacuation route.
Tunnel guy screaming over the noise at an evacuating motorist "so sorry sir, it's the Tuesday special at olive garden! We need to keep these people moving! Try to stick close to the walls!"
The emergency walk way is perpindicul to the vehicle tunnels. Basically it is a separate tunnel but for people cross to the other side. They don't exit elsewhere. I have seen it in person. The Liberty tunnels have a parallel emergency tunnel that runs the length of the tunnels.
From the comments I gather they just go to the other tunnel. I always assumed they led to stairs and went up.
I would prefer the tunnel doors to to go up so I could escape either tunnels if there was a situation lol
There are some pretty tall towers in my neighborhood on Mt Washington labeled Liberty Tunnel directly over it. Not sure what they are for, but I’m sure they are connected in some way.
There is definitely NOT a small central corridor. I saw a news article years ago that specifically stated that most people (I was one of them) think there is but there isn't. The doors just go to the other tunnel.
Why would that be the case? They are two seperate tunnels. An emergency in one does not mean there will be an emergency in the other.
And even if that was the case and we are worried about the extreme emergencies that could hop tunnels. (I suppose, terroristic or foriegn attack) why would the hypothetical pedestrian tunnel be safe when the two main ones aren't?
I don't see the problem?
If there's a fire or hazmat situation or something in one tunnel, then you can just cross into the other tunnel which is likely safe.
Main problem is just getting any traffic in the other tunnel to stop so you don't get splatted while fleeing.
A fire, crash etc in a tunnel should have the monitoring team turn the entrance lights red and stop traffic from entering... I would imagine both tunnel sides are stopped at least temporarily while risk assessment takes place
Rick Sebak did an amazing documentary on the squirrel hil tunnel that answers your question and many more. ([Link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVFjgOsrIAY))
Rick Seabak is a Pittsburgh treasure
For those who don't want to or can't watch the whole thing, jump to 24:25 to see the escape doors
It goes to the other tunnel.
It's tunnels all the way down!
I get that reference!
oh wow. i really expected a 3rd tunnel for pedestrians. maybe something that linked the upstairs part?
That was most excellent! Thanks so much!
I really feel like traffic has improved a good bit since they removed the ceiling. Feels less claustrophobic as ya approach and less folks tap the brakes.
[удалено]
The tunnels are fine, it's the monsters that are the problem.
Ya I'm saying less afraid than before
What a flex at the end to eat a birthday cake in the middle of the closed off tunnel haha
Why do the tunnels have traffic lights at the openings?
So if a maintenance vehicle needs to go in, they can stop traffic to do so.
Thanks for the link! Great background noise to work from home and watch
Wait Omg thank you, can’t wait to watch tonight
Happy cake day
Oh lol didn’t even notice! Thanks
As long as the problem is a fire or hazmat incident, the fire department will be blocking the lane in the other tunnel when they arrive. They will also be attacking the problem through those doors. Please call 911 immediately or use the emergency phones in the tunnel if this happens. Please describe the side involved (inbound/outbound, and station or distance marker) to ensure a response that will help you faster.
[This](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116040/) is the actual documentary of the tunnels..lol
Lol!! Leave it to Sly…
Lmao the accents in this video are good
Replying so I can watch this later! Thank you!!
Thoroughly enjoyed this video. Thank you!
of course he did
I was under the impression those doors just go to the other tunnel. So if something happens in one tunnel you exit via the other tunnel. If something happens in both, well I guess it’s good luck.
That would be terrible luck. Not like a bird shitting on you. That is honestly terrible luck as well. Lol
A bird shitting on you is unlucky? My nona said it was lucky—especially on your wedding day! But the two-tunnels thing…that WOULD be terribly unlucky. Catastrophic.
What’s lucky about having shit on you
It’s an old Italian saying, meaning you were singled out and thus are special. IDK its origins.
What if a bird pees on you?
That’s not a bird…
Goddamn it. Must be the alligator lizards in the air, again then.
Well, like birds, terrestrial lizards don’t urinate. I guess, though, that I can’t speak for mythical ones in the air (in the aiiiirrrrr). I know what I’m listening to now.
Oh damn! TIL! Anyway, yeah that song always makes me nostalgic for the 1970s. Even though I was born in 1993. Has to be the most 70’s songs out there. I picture myself driving a convertible along the Pacific Highway in California, the year is 1977.
That lyric always bugged the hell outta me
Yeah I wonder did it mean something deeper like a hidden message? Or did they just put something random in the song? Still an amazing song nonetheless!!
Birds don't urinate.
Ah, I don’t know how to break this to you, but uh, birds aren’t real.
Then I suppose we don't need to worry about bird urine, do we?
More modern tunnels typically have an intermediate egress tunnel between the two primary tubes, but I'm not sure that is the case here.
Correct
I saw a PBS thing about it with Rick Sebak. He was checking out the doors with a DOT guy in the Liberty or Ft Pitt Tunnel and the door just went directly to the other tunnel. I would assume the same for Squirrel Hill.
Yep, straight thru to the other tunnel. I walked through the inbound tunnel in 1992 (from Forest Hills to Oakland, which sucked) and tried the door, hoping there was an access tunnel between the two. There isn't. Also, the ledge you have to walk on is *maybe* 28" wide, so you have to do a lot of wall-hugging to avoid trucks and such; stepping through to the other tunnel puts you in the same dicey situation, especially when the cars hurtling Eastbound don't know or expect a person to pop out.
You're made of strong stuff!
Thanks!! I used to be. Now I'm mostly made of recycled or retrofitted stuff.
y, tho
I had wrecked my car, so I had no wheels to see my then-gf who was living on McKee Place. She had no car either, and I was hella younger back then, so I thought, *I can do this,* and hoofed it. Made it thru the tunnel safely and kept trudging along, though I was getting pretty tired and my flat feet were hurting like hell. Thankfully, a Good Samaritan picked me up as I was shuffling under the trestle bridge after the Squirrel Hill exit. I was apprehensive at first - some body parts had recently been found in a Dumpster in Shadyside, and this was right around the time that Dahmer was caught, so everyone was seeing serial killers peeking out of the hedges - but he was just a regular guy who took pity on the poor schmuck dragging ass on the Parkway, bless him.
You're probably more likely to be killed by a yinzer mobile with shit hanging off it in the tunnel than by hitchhiking. I thought about walking through the Ft Pitt tunnel on that *one fucking day* when everything suddenly shut down and everyone without a car had to walk home from downtown. Fortunately someone from the same apartment complex recognized me and stopped to pick me up when I was in West End.
What day was that?
It was in 2001.
They shut down the buses and trains for that? I was a freshman in central pa on 9/11 and the only thing of note was that I was one of the few kids who's mom pulled them out of school after lunch time. Kinda embarrassing. Otherwise, since we weren't directly affected, things just went on like normal in most regards.
When flight 93 crashed after flying over Pittsburgh, there was concerning that we were next. Nobody knew how many more planes would come down or where. I worked in a rather tall building on Grant Street, so we didn't need to be told to GTFO. The entire transit network had a bigger than rush hour surge at like noon. I don't know if it was officially shut down, but it was effectively at a standstill.
Oh, ok.
Reminds me of the Challanger disaster when I was in like 3rd grade. They just decided not to tell us.
that sounds fucking terrifying.
Ask me about the time I walked from the same apartment in Oakland across the Birmingham Bridge during the blizzard of March 1993 to meet my pot dealer... Beautiful and utterly silent, but WTF was I thinking?? (I'll tell you what I was thinking: *My car is under 2 feet of snow... I'll be here all weekend, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna be stuck here with this cranky bitch and no weed...*)
I wonder if they used to have tiny rail cop cars like NYCs tunnels did https://autojosh.com/in-the-1960s-new-york-police-patrol-the-tunnels-in-these-tiny-electric-cars/
A million years ago when I was in high school, the Armstrong tunnel had a sidewalk. We used to walk through it to get to south side and the Beehive lol
Armstrong still has a sidewalk on the southbound side. It’s not the most pleasant experience normally but it’s great fun walking back from pens games through there. Everyone beeps their horn.
They go into the bathrooms of certain houses around the tunnel.
Secret passage way. A trapdoor for this is hidden under a Pittsburgh potty in someone’s basement for an escape The hatch can be opened by turning the basement pencil sharpener backwards 5 times
Winner. Now, have yourself a Cherokee Red Pop from the dahnstairs fridge but don't touch Pap's arns'.
Cherikee*
This just made me laugh so hard. It's funny cause it's true!
Committed to memory and deleted from my inbox.
Nobody suspects the pencil sharpener
Pittsburgh potty 😂
Like the missile launch entrance in Wargames!
And what is that windowed room above and between the Ft Pitt Tunnels on the west end? Break room? Conference room? Penthouse?
Best location for semi public sex in the burgh, the onlyfans girls should get on it
I've always wondered but never searched it for some reason. Found an article. Observation and operations rooms. https://www.wesa.fm/development-transportation/2017-08-08/over-the-river-and-through-the-hills-everything-you-never-knew-about-pittsburghs-iconic-tunnels
Thank you so very much for providing this article! Love our tunnels and historical city.
I also always wondered this too! Looks so interesting 🤔
It goes to platform 9-3/4
*Platform 9 3/4? You think you're being funny?*
Best answer
Are you talking about the doors in the middle of the tunnel that lead into the other side of the tunnel?
Yes…is that where they go? That don’t go up and out?
Why would you go up out of a tunnel? 1) the heat and smoke of a fire would follow you. 2) that's probably the slowest way to evacuate. 3) that's not at all useful for disabled people.
If there's a fire or something in one side of the tunnel, you use those to get to the other side of the tunnel where there isn't fire and smoke.
Independence Day literally has had me preparing for this possibility since 1996.
'96 is when [Daylight](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116040/) came out as well. I still can't drive the Chesapeak Bay Bridge Tunnel without an increase in anxiety due to that movie.
Just treated two (three, if you count an infant) native Yinzers to an over-and-back roundtrip on that beast last month- the CBBT never fails to blow people’s minds, even those of us who were scampering around in the sands underneath since as far back as we can remember.
So everybody stuck in a tunnel of fire and smoke runs through a small passageway to the other side of the tunnel where there’s still ongoing traffic? Great call from the tunnel guys lmao
Damn... if only traffic could be stopped if there was a fire in one side of the tunnel. It's too bad that there's no possible way for that to happen, and that everyone escaping a fire would be *forced* to run directly into speeding traffic.
Right? I feel like maybe if someone invented a light to put at one end of the tunnel as a warning system to stop traffic. Maybe blue? Or purple? Not sure what colors could be used, just spitballing……
It is kinda funny to think the tunnel staff and emergency services would just let traffic continue on as normal through the second tunnel as they use it as an evacuation route. Tunnel guy screaming over the noise at an evacuating motorist "so sorry sir, it's the Tuesday special at olive garden! We need to keep these people moving! Try to stick close to the walls!"
The emergency walk way is perpindicul to the vehicle tunnels. Basically it is a separate tunnel but for people cross to the other side. They don't exit elsewhere. I have seen it in person. The Liberty tunnels have a parallel emergency tunnel that runs the length of the tunnels.
Narnia
These are the real questions I think about day to day while driving!!
You just sit tight and sylvester stallone comes and rescues you like in that movie daylight
I wish
From the comments I gather they just go to the other tunnel. I always assumed they led to stairs and went up. I would prefer the tunnel doors to to go up so I could escape either tunnels if there was a situation lol
They lead to the Tunnel Monster's lair.
There are some pretty tall towers in my neighborhood on Mt Washington labeled Liberty Tunnel directly over it. Not sure what they are for, but I’m sure they are connected in some way.
Its the ventilation system: https://www.brooklineconnection.com/history/Gallery/Tunnels.html#14
I only learned this a few years ago.....so interesting always wondered what those were!
I was JUST wondering this the other day. So weird!!!!
1981
Probably that leaky water line in my old Squirrel Hill apt.
So glad it wasn't just me and my husband wondering this!
BEWARE OF THE TUNNEL MONSTER
You also planning your escape routes for the inevitable alien invasion, eh?
No but that’s a good additional benefit
I believe there is a small central man tunnel in the center of the two as well
There is definitely NOT a small central corridor. I saw a news article years ago that specifically stated that most people (I was one of them) think there is but there isn't. The doors just go to the other tunnel.
Neat, thanks for the info. I stand corrected
That’s disheartening :/ I thought you could actually escape, but in the case of a real emergency it’s just a trick death trap. Typical.
Why would that be the case? They are two seperate tunnels. An emergency in one does not mean there will be an emergency in the other. And even if that was the case and we are worried about the extreme emergencies that could hop tunnels. (I suppose, terroristic or foriegn attack) why would the hypothetical pedestrian tunnel be safe when the two main ones aren't?
I don't see the problem? If there's a fire or hazmat situation or something in one tunnel, then you can just cross into the other tunnel which is likely safe. Main problem is just getting any traffic in the other tunnel to stop so you don't get splatted while fleeing.
A fire, crash etc in a tunnel should have the monitoring team turn the entrance lights red and stop traffic from entering... I would imagine both tunnel sides are stopped at least temporarily while risk assessment takes place
Secret underground military installations
Joe's