First railway tunnel in Texas

The first railroad tunnel built in Texas in 1882, said to be over 1500 feet in length has an large opening about midway (making it technically two tunnels, end to end). This section of San Antonio to El Paso track was built to cross the Pecos river, by descending into the Rio Grand valley and crossing the Pecos with a conventional bridge at it's mouth. By 1892 this difficult to traverse and maintain section of track was replaced with the building of the "Pecos Viaduct" about 11km (7 miles) directly north of here. That very large bridge allowed the railway to remain up on the plateau.

In April 2009, with Amistad Reservoir water surface reported at elevation 341M (1119ft), the ceiling of the tunnels at their northern end was about 1.5M (4.5feet) above the water surface. The tunnel slopes upward to the south, and at least from the north end to the middle opening could be traversed with small watercraft (the water near the southern end was increasingly shallow and clogged with debris). There is a colony of small bats roosting in the tunnel(s).