This is an open letter to those who are not from the South Hills of Pittsburgh.
Do not be afraid to enter the Liberty Tunnels. There is no need to creep into them warily. You are not riding on the backs of gargantuan turtles. If your vehicles were gargantuan turtles, I doubt they'd be as leery to enter the Liberty Tubes (as they are commonly referred to) as you are. Whatever fears you have are baseless. An inescapable light-forsaken realm inhabited by winged dragons, demonic man-eating spiders, and hairy, howling, red-eyed humanoids does not await you on the other side.
[The "slow-down" happens regardless of traffic lights, by the way. Even when the light is green, people act as if they're being sucked into a black hole against their will.]
Credit (blame?) an enigmatic individual named Amos Neeld for its nearly century-old horseshoe design. Two lanes of traffic go inbound and two lanes go outbound. That's it. Is that so scary?
Perhaps I'd feel uneasy also if I had never traveled through the Tubes before. After all, the tunnels were created by literally boring a 5,900 foot channel into the belly of Mt. Washington itself. However, think about how inconvenient traveling to and from the South Hills would be if the tunnels had never been built. You'll get a hint of that alternate timeline whenever one or both lanes are ever closed, and they often are.
Which brings me to my only real caveat about the Liberty Tunnels; they seem to be in a neverending state of repair and disrepair.
Again, to an outsider, they might seem eerily cavelike, and I can see why that is. Overlooking that, since early childhood, I've always felt a sense of excitement and pride whenever I've exited them going onto the Liberty Bridge and into the city. To this day, when I exit the Tunnels from Downtown Pittsburgh into the South Hills, particularly after a long trip, I feel solace, like Batman entering the Batcave after another harrowing adventure; I know that I'm closing in on homebase, and no other region has ever felt more like home to me than the South Hills of Pittsburgh. read more