Hoosac Tunnel opens in North Adams.

The railroad tunnel runs under the Berkshire Mountains between Savoy and North Adams and provides a long-sought rail link between Boston and the west. The longest tunnel in the U.S. at the time, its construction began in 1851. By the time of its completion, however, New York and Chicago have surpassed Boston as commercial centers. Charles Francis Adams Jr. later writes, “While the great corporations which served other cities were absorbing into themselves the thoroughfares in the valley of the Mississippi, the Legislature of the State of Massachusetts kept its eyes steadily fixed on the Hoosac Mountain. To this, with other causes, was due the decline of Boston shipping.” The tunnel is rebored in 1926 and enlarged in 1951 and 1997, but is no longer in use.