LIFE LIST UPDATE: No. 556 – Run through the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile

Runners pass through Bankhead Tunnel on Saturday.

I scratched another item off my “life list” on Saturday morning when I got the chance to run through the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile, Ala.

On any normal day this would have been impossible because the tunnel, which carries traffic under the Mobile River, is closed to foot and bicycle traffic, but this past Saturday the chance to run through tunnel arose thanks to the Mobile Lions Club Tunnel Vision 5K Race. This year marked the second year that this race has been held in Mobile and the route carries runners through the Bankhead Tunnel to a finish line just off the Causeway. During the race, the Mobile Police Department closes both lanes of the Bankhead Tunnel to automobile traffic, allowing runners to safely move through the tunnel.

For those of you unfamiliar with the John H. Bankhead Tunnel, it carries two lanes of U.S. Highway 98 (which is also called Government Street) under the Mobile River from Blakeley Island to downtown Mobile. The tunnel is 3,389 feet long and is 40 feet below the surface of the river at its deepest point. It took two years to construct the tunnel, and it opened to vehicle traffic in February 1941. The tunnel was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage in 1977, and the tunnel can been seen in at least two movies, 1977’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and 1991’s “Stone Cold.”

The Tunnel Vision 5K was also one of the more interesting footraces I’ve ever been in. You had to park at USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, where you could register for the race before boarding a yellow school bus for the trip to the starting line in downtown Mobile. The bus put us out near the Mobile Public Library, which was just up from the starting line on Government Street.

The race started about 8:15 a.m. and the route carried us down Government Street and through the Bankhead Tunnel. I’d been through the tunnel many times in a car, but never fully appreciated the slope down into and back out of the tunnel until Saturday. I assure you, it is far from flat. In fact, more than a few race participants had to walk because they couldn’t run up the steep grade.

On the other side of the tunnel, the route continued east on US Highway 98 and past where we parked at the Battleship Memorial Park. The route continued over the Admiral Raphael Semmes Bridge and on to the finish line at Tacky Jack’s restaurant on the Causeway. Race T-shirts were handed out at the end of the race at the restaurant instead of at the start of the race, which is where you usually get your shirt.

Also, for a race in early May, temperatures were unusually cold on Saturday. At start time, temperatures were in the low 40s with a wind chill factor down into the high 30s. I read later that those lows tied a record low set in 1960.

In the end, I enjoyed scratching this item off my life list. How many of you have interesting memories of the Bankhead Tunnel? Have you ever traveled through it on foot or on bicycle? Let us know in the comments section below.