The first mainland tunnel attempt

The San Andreas Mainland Railway Company proposes a narrow freight tunnel beneath the northern channel.

Test shafts and a short landward heading are built. The proposed under-channel route is never completed.

Water ingress, unreliable geological estimates and repeated pumping failures consume the budget. A fatal flooding accident in 1875 is followed by arguments over missing payroll money and equipment purchases.

A major lender withdraws. The company defaults in 1876 and the heading is sealed.

Workers’ families spend years seeking compensation.

Saloons prosper during construction, then inherit customers who no longer have wages. Reformers point to private gaming evenings among the investors as evidence of moral failure. Creditors insist the project failed because of engineering and finance.

Both arguments leave room for genuine misconduct, but neither proves that one card game sank the tunnel.

The abandoned works leave sealed shafts, an approach cutting, compensation records and a warehouse near the waterfront.

No completed route reaches the mainland.