The railroad tunnel was constructed from 1871 to 1872 as part of the Shepaug Valley Railroad. A crew of coal miners from Pennsylvania built the 235-foot curved tunnel by hand, using picks, dynamite, and nitroglycerin to blast through Steep Rock Ridge. It took them only nine months to complete, a remarkably quick project in those days. The railroad ceased operation in 1948. Today, hikers enjoy the cool, damp air within the darkness of these chiseled bedrock walls as a refreshing respite on a warm summer day.

The first New Yorker to buy property and build a grand summer house in Washington was Edward Van Ingen, a wool importer. Around 1892, Van Ingen asked Ehrick Rossiter, the renowned architect, to design a hotel on a hillside overlooking the Shepaug River as a memorial to his oldest daughter who died of Scarlet Fever. Completed in 1893, Holiday House was conceived as a vacation retreat for working class women affiliated with Saint Bartholomew’s Church in New York City.

The Steep Rock Summit, at an elevation of 776 feet, provides a breathtaking view overlooking the Clamshell section of the Shepaug River Valley. Gifted to the Board of Trustees in 1925 by Steep Rock’s founder, Ehrick Rossiter, these 100-acres including the summit are the core of the Preserve and the first land owned by Steep Rock Association. Four years later, the Trustees purchased the Clamshell to preserve the view from the summit. This view contains the same sense of grandeur it did a century ago, and is well worth the hike to the top.