The Bloody Pit Project
Ruin Mapping, Hoosac Tunnel
I recently returned to the Hoosac Tunnel to continue mapping peripheral ruins, moving outward from the main bore into the industrial landscape that once sustained excavation. Among the most intact of these remains are the ruins of the Compressor Building, set low along the Deerfield River, pressed into the bank and partially reclaimed by forest.
In the earliest years of construction, progress through the Hoosac depended on hand drilling. One man held the steel while another struck it, blow after blow, advancing inches at a time into hard rock. It was slow, dangerous work, and injuries were routine. The introduction of pneumatic drilling in the mid-1860s altered the scale of the project entirely. Muscle gave way to machinery. Speed increased. So did the demand for power.
The Compressor Building was constructed to supply that power. Positioned beside the river, it housed large compressors that fed pressurized air into the tunnel. Water from the Deerfield was diverted through a hand-dug sluiceway extending roughly half a mile upstream, an ambitious system intended to drive turbines below the building. The river proved unreliable. Seasonal flow fluctuated, output dropped, and steam power was later added, layered onto the site rather than replacing it outright.
Today, the structure survives as a partial shell. Stone walls slump inward. Machinery openings frame leaf litter and river light. The turbine pits remain the most legible features. Rectangular recesses cut into the ground mark where blades once spun, their shafts rising vertically to the compressors above. These voids still read clearly. Water below. Air above. Rock ahead.
What remains here explains how the tunnel advanced at all. Without compressed air, drilling stalled. Without the river, the compressors fell silent. The pits, foundations, and shaft recesses mark the point where water was turned into force, and force into excavation. This was not a peripheral structure. It was a choke point.
This area became known as the Bloody Pit for good reason. Accidents were frequent. Equipment failed. Men were crushed, struck, drowned, or injured beyond recovery. The name reflects labor realities rather than legend, a blunt acknowledgment of the human cost embedded in the ground itself.
The photographs from this visit focus on those remaining traces, turbine pit recesses, wall courses, foundation lines, and the way the site continues to interact with water, gravity, and decay. This is preservation by record. Once the machinery is gone, the ruins become the archive.
Additional documentation, including field analysis of both portals of the Hoosac Tunnel, the alignment towers, and other associated ruins, can be found through Restoration Obscura. That work emphasizes historical context and on-site observation without publishing precise locations or maps. The rail lines that pass through the tunnel and over the adjacent trestle remain active, and rail infrastructure is unforgiving. Trains move quickly, quietly, and without room for error. These are working corridors, not abandoned spaces, and discretion is a matter of safety as much as preservation.
Learn more at www.restorationobscura.com.
© 2026 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, Nor'easter Films, and Restoration Obscura
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