Downtown Dallas has a well-known (and controversial) system of underground pedestrian tunnels that siphon folks off the streets, but serve as important retail and commerce connectors. See (
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This WM is NOT about those tunnels.
Deep underground the streets of Downtown Dallas, a forgotten part of the city’s railroad history remains in the basements and sub-basements of three buildings (out of 4) that used to be part of the massive Gulf, Colorado, & Santa Fe Railroad complex. The waymark coordinates lead you to the parking garage of the SoCo Lofts, formerly Santa Fe Bldg. #2, where find all that remains of the long-abandoned tunnels.
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"Santa Fe Building
Address: 1122 Jackson Street
Architect: Lloyd Whitson & F. Cowderie Dale
Year Built: 1926
Quasi-Spanish Renaissance buildings part of a 4-building complex of warehouses and offices for the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad. Tunnels under the buildings connected them and allowed trains to enter the complex. Tenants for Santa Fe #2 included the University Club, WFAA Radio, and the Garment Center. The two-story penthouse was designed for the University Club and its 600 members. They left in the late 1930s and WFAA took the top floors.
The building was vacant and boarded up in the 1980s. In 1987, it was ordered demolished, along with the neighboring Ingram Freezer Building (Santa Fe #3), but was spared. Buildings 1 and 2 became Dallas landmarks in 1988 and were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. Santa Fe #3 was demolished, but 1, 2, and 4 remain.
. . . In 2004, the building became SoCo Urban Loft Condominiums (SoCo stands for "south of Commerce")." [end]
The tunnels were an odd footnote to history until September of 2000, when a rupture in an old 30-inch high-pressure water main in the abandoned rail tunnels sent water geysering out of manholes all over downtown Dallas. The flooding shut down the central Dallas business district for days and did millions of dollars in damage to Santa Fe #1, home to various Federal offices downtown.
Photo credit: Justin Tevereen (
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In 2005, the US Government settled its lawsuit against the contractors who caused the flood, recovering $2.3M in damages for US taxpayers: (
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2.33 MILLION IN SETTLEMENT FUNDS RECEIVED FROM CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES WHO CAUSED FLOOD IN DOWNTOWN DALLAS FEDERAL BUILDINGS IN 2000
U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper, of the Northern District of Texas, announced today the receipt of $2.33 million in settlement funds from Dynamic Cable Construction and Reata Construction Company to compensate the U.S. for flood damage that occurred in September 2000 to two federal buildings in downtown Dallas.
This affirmative civil case successfully collected water loss damages to General Services Administration (GSA) federal property located at 1100 and 1114 Commerce Street, in Dallas, also known as the Earle Cabell Federal Building/U.S. Courthouse and the Santa Fe Federal Building, resulting from a catastrophic break of a 30-inch pressurized underground water main flooding an abandoned rail tunnel connected to the federal buildings.
In November 2004, a federal jury in Dallas returned a verdict against Dynamic Cable Construction Company and Reata Construction Company to compensate the U.S. for damage when the force of water flooded the tunnel from Young Street to the wall that separates the Santa Fe Federal building from the Santa Fe Terminal Lofts building. The intense water pressure forced the collapse of the sealed concrete cinder block tunnel entrance causing the basement in the Santa Fe Federal building to be demolished and flooding into the basement and sub-basement of the Earle Cabell Federal Building/U.S. Courthouse.
Due to the construction companies’ negligence, 30-40 million gallons of treated water were released into the tunnel and surrounding city streets, causing the Dallas central business district, between Young, Jackson and Griffin Streets, to resemble a large lake with geysers spouting water from breaks in the tunnel’s ceiling.
The Santa Fe Federal building, with 12 feet of water in it, was closed for seven days, while the Earle Cabell Federal Building/United States Courthouse was closed for two days. The calamity happened during a period of record-setting heat in Dallas and while most of the city was under some type of water restrictions because of the lack of rainfall.
Neither Reata Construction Company nor Dynamic Cable Construction Company had obtained maps and design plans in order to avoid city water utilities. Dynamic Cable Construction Company was the licensee which had contracted with the City of Dallas to safely lay fiber optic conduits beneath city streets. Dynamic had specifically agreed to obtain city maps and plans prior to proceeding with the project. However, they drilled with a blind eye, and even after they were surprised to discover the Santa Fe Railroad Tunnel, a structure 20 feet deep and 50 feet wide under Young Street, neither Reata nor Dynamic stopped to consult any of the city’s water utility maps or plans for that area of Young Street.
Dynamic Construction Company and Reata Construction Company appealed their trial loss that resulted in the judgment of $2,212,636.72, plus costs and interest. The case was settled while pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The settlement agreement gave the U.S. essentially full recovery of the amount due as of that date, $2.33 million.
The case was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Katherine Savers McGovern and Steve Fahey." [end]
A Dallas Morning News story after the flood revealed more about the history of these tunnels, why they were built, and the ingeniousness of the locomotives that ran in them:
1924: Santa Fe tunnels
System fed downtown's fashion industry, transported troops
07/03/2002
By BRIAN ANDERSON / Dallas Web Staff
Buried beneath the bustling streets of downtown Dallas, a labyrinth of hidden history lies in the darkness.
Constructed in 1924, the railroad tunnels beneath the former Santa Fe Freight Terminal carried merchandise to a fledgling fashion district and soldiers to their duty in World War II.
It’s rumored that a river of bootlegged booze once flowed through the caverns during the days of prohibition.
“I wouldn’t doubt it,” laughed Bob LaPrelle, executive director of the Age of Steam Railroad Museum at Fair Park. “I do know the Santa Fe Railroad in those days was known for parties.”
The tunnels have long been silent. The rusty rails have mostly disappeared behind brick walls and ribbons of concrete. But the lore surrounding the former train complex still packs a full head of steam.
“They are kind of intriguing and interesting,” Mr. LaPrelle said, noting that the tunnels still prompt occasional inquiries from local railroad buffs.
Four buildings on three adjacent city blocks - bound by Young, Commerce, Griffin and Field streets - made up the original complex that centralized the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad’s transfer and warehousing operations in downtown Dallas.
Only three buildings remain today: Santa Fe Building I now houses offices for the federal government; Santa Fe Lofts, formerly known as the Garment Center, now contains about 200 apartment units; and a single abandoned warehouse at the complex’s southernmost point lies across from the Dallas City Hall.
The Ingram Freezer Building, the third in the north-south building chain, was demolished in 1988. A parking lot has taken its place.
The complex buildings were linked by a subterranean rail tunnel meant to relieve downtown train congestion.
“The tunnels and the Santa Fe facility resulted from the restrictions for building downtown,” Mr. LaPrelle said, explaining that a web of tracks had come to choke pedestrian and auto traffic in the downtown area. “It was a way to get things in and out.”
Three sets of underground tracks served the complex, branching from a central subsurface line, which emerged from the ground to the south.
“The tunnels are still there, under the buildings,” said Dan Monaghan, a Garland optometrist who helped found the Age of Steam Museum and currently serves on the board of directors for Dallas Area Rapid Transit.
Smokeless, miniature engines moved rail cars through the Santa Fe underground.
“It was a small steam locomotive. It just had four wheels on it and a huge steam boiler – but no fire box,” Mr. Monaghan said.
The engines, sometimes referred to as “fireless cookers,” “thermos bottle” or “hot water bottle” engines, could operate for about half a day before having to recharge at a central boiler.
“They couldn’t have combustion down in the tunnel, so that’s why you needed an external steam source,” Mr. Monaghan said.
Traditional steam engines would have spelled disaster for the crews working below ground, according to Mr. LaPrelle.
“You would have eventually been asphyxiated in addition to the fire hazard,” he said.
In its prime, the Santa Fe tunnel complex was one of the most important arteries serving the heart of Dallas. The buildings, described in an ACME Brick advertisement from the period as “one of the outstanding construction projects in the world,” formed one of the Southwest’s largest merchandising centers.
The steel wheels below carried goods into the buildings, with 21 freight elevators lifting merchandise to the upper-level showrooms or first-floor trucking platforms.
The University Club, located in a posh clubhouse atop the Garment Center, provided an elegant crown for the complex and a high-rise playground for the Dallas elite. A sky bridge carried prominent businessmen to the club from the roof of the adjacent Santa Fe Building I.
“I’m sure all manner of things went on up there,” Mr. LaPrelle said.
In later years, studios for WFAA-AM radio, the forerunner to today’s WFAA-TV, would occupy the top of the Garment Center.
In 1942, soldiers became the primary cargo passing through the Santa Fe tunnels. The U.S. government converted a portion of the complex into a recruitment center for the Army. The “thermos bottles” towed thousands of fresh troops away from home, setting them on their way to boot camps across the country.
Today, the scarred floor of the Santa Fe Lofts’ parking garage offers a glimpse of what used to be. Poured concrete has encased the three channels through which as many as 40 railroad cars at a time used to pass.
The two-tone concrete slab and remnants of the loading docks’ metal lip are the only signs of the building’s former use. Mismatched bricks at each end block the former entrance and exit to the rail line.
“When they built the convention center, it severed the connection to the Santa Fe main line,” Mr. Monaghan said.
For the Santa Fe tunnels, as in the case of many historical properties, progress has marked the end of the line." [end]
Rail fans in Dallas have blogged that the old hot-water bottle locomotive is still there, walled-up inside the abandoned tunnels, a relic of the lines’ abandonment. (
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From Wikipedia: (
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The Santa Fe Terminal Complex is an 18-acre complex of historic buildings in the Government District of downtown Dallas, Texas. Constructed in 1924 as the headquarters for the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway and the Southwest’s largest merchandising center . . . .
Project architect Whitson . . . planned the complex so that four buildings, in a line running north to south from Commerce to Young Streets could be served by up to three sets of underground railroad tracks branching from a central subsurface line, which emerged from the . . . south near the present Dallas Convention Center. . . . All four buildings were linked by a subterranean rail tunnel served by small steam locomotives.
Building No. 1 at 1114 Commerce Street opened in late 1924. . . . The rear of the building connected to a 10-story warehouse wing fronting Jackson Street [which] served as the terminus of the freight depot.
Building No. 2 is a 10-story warehouses in light brown brick with large open industrial spaces and concrete columns. The building housed offices and showrooms for manufacturing companies, chemical companies, and building supplies. Near the end of construction, a 2-story structure was added on the roof of the building . . . Radio station WFAA moved into [this] space for a broadcast station in 1940.
Buildings No. 3 and 4 were each 8 stories tall and connected to the rail tunnel. Building No. 3, also known as the Ingram Freezer Building, was designed for cold storage.
Rail operations
Thirty-five to forty rail cars entered the tunnel each day, pulled by a "hot water bottle" locomotive. It was specially designed to prevent smoke in the main line and its six spurs in the tunnels by being charged with steam, which would last from four to five hours from a central, high pressure boiler under the office building. A 1924 Santa Fe Magazine article called the engine a "unique feature in locomotive construction, only one other of its type being in existence." They remained in service until about 1950, when diesel locomotives assumed the duty. Rail cars carried goods into the buildings and then the 21 freight elevators lifted merchandise to upper-level showrooms and first-floor trucking platforms. . . .
[Today,] Santa Fe #1 houses offices for the federal government. Santa Fe #2 was redeveloped into SoCo Urban lofts. [Santa Fe #3 was razed in 1988.] Santa Fe #4 reopened in 2009 as the Aloft Hotel. Remnants of the tunnels still remain in the buildings today."
Metered parking is available on Jackson Street. Wait for a resident of the lofts to raise the parking garage gate, then walk down 2 ramps to the bricked-up former tunnel entrances on the north and south walls of the parking garage. On the south wall you can see part of the metal doors that closed off the then-active tunnels when deliveries were not being made.