What's Growing Inside This Abandoned Tunnel?

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Deep in the mountains of Manchester Paris, something has been waiting here for over a hundred years. It has sat here silent, forgotten, swallowed by the jungle, a tunnel carved straight through solid limestone rock. No machinery, no power tools, just men and mountain and will. This tunnel was once part of the greatest railway system the Caribbean had ever seen. Trains carrying thousands of Jamaicans passed through this darkness every single week and then it all stopped. Today we go inside. So, hey, one love family. I'm in the community of comfort all here in Manchester and you wouldn't believe who's here with me today. Today, that's YouTuber, my eyes are yours, content creator people here in Manchester. What do you have to say to the the followers and viewers of One Love Jamaica?

[00:00:48]>> Good morning, family of One Love and Jamaica all over the world. I am here today with One Love Jamaica family.

[00:00:57]Well, we are going on a tour and I guess you guys have to come and see what is on this journey with us. So, stick on stay people and watch what go on for the tour. No, big up on yourself.

[00:01:09]>> So, you hear that one? Love Jamaica family. We're going to be, you know, taking a tour of the community to look at something that most of you will have probably seen before, but you know, as per usual, we're going to give you some new information that you most likely have never gotten before.

[00:01:26]And I hope that you all are having a wonderful day today.

[00:01:34]So let's just make our way now on the journey. As you can see in front of us, we are passing some rail tracks. And just to preempt, this is a continuation of the series that we've been focused on looking at the Jamaica railway system.

[00:01:56]Hello. Hello.

[00:01:59]So, now we're going to be headed in to some bushes here as we make our way.

[00:02:09]You can see that um my eyes is ensuring that we have what is a clear passage here through the bushes.

[00:02:21]You know that this is a boy work thing this and we we can see if you can look through closely. We're looking at some rail tracks. Let's see where it leads us to.

[00:02:38]And I think I did some reading that was saying this exact area in terms of the distance from Kingston in terms of if you should check it by the track is about 55 mi if I'm not mistaken.

[00:02:55]I'll basically if I need to I'll post that information just in case for all the viewers and subscribers here.

[00:03:16]Oh, I think it's 65.5 miles, not 55. So, I kind of shortened it by 10.

[00:03:26]And you see we're getting deeper and deeper into the bushes or you would say forested area.

[00:03:40]on a quest. Well, not a quest, people, but a journey to show you guys something. Well, most of you should have or could or seen this before, but nevertheless, I'm being a tour guide today. So, I am here with One Love Jamaica. All right, the people. So, he's right here. So, big him up the people.

[00:04:02]Yeah, man. He's a very good YouTuber, a very informative channel.

[00:04:07]So right now we just a couple way to comfort all that we can find something.

[00:04:14]All right. So you know so yeah one love Jamaica family.

[00:04:24]It would seem that we are getting a little bit closer to our quest.

[00:04:30]I know the anticipation is building, but just be a little bit more patient with us as we make our way through this heavily forested area.

[00:04:45]You know, I just drove through the comfort community and I tell it's a nice quaint and quiet community. You see residents hanging out on the roadside and so on and everybody is very nice, you know, and cordial.

[00:05:02]So I think we are just a few meters um from the area that we are looking to get to.

[00:05:18]So in a minute or so folks, we will be right there for you.

[00:05:30]And you can see that this direction that we chose to take is somewhere that doesn't seem to be used very often, if at all. Because right now, you can see that we basically have been cutting our way through this very thick thick brush.

[00:05:55]Yes.

[00:05:57]So, by now, one love Jamaica family, I think you should be getting a bit more clarity that our quest was to locate the train tunnel here. As you can see some distance in front of us there here in the community of comfort all and you know this is steep in Jamaica's history cuz you know that we were one of the first in the western hemisphere to have had a train service.

[00:06:36]So the exact distance of the tunnel I think from Kingston is that it's 65.5 mi and the tunnel itself I think stretches 688 ft and just let us look at this the grand on the outside and you can imagine the kind of work that was put in to cut through this hillside.

[00:07:06]to get here and I can tell you that it must have been a challenge.

[00:07:12]The nearest tunnel to this one is in is the Balaclava line that is about 4.5 mi west of here and that's only 348 ft.

[00:07:23]Another thing you'll notice here is that there's a lot of water coming in from the rocks and that is due to how the rocks are in the parish here of Manchester.

[00:07:39]Yeah, this tunnel was built as part of the porous to Montego Bay extension.

[00:07:44]That extension was completed in about 1895 under the Americanowned West India Improvement Company. This is the comfort all tunnel to approximately 1893 to 1895.

[00:07:58]I remember we said that it is about 688 ft in distance. And look, we're looking at the next end on the the other side people. And trust me, I wonder if some of us are brave enough now to take on the journey to get to the next end. But let's see. We'll we'll see that in a few seconds. So you're one love Jamaica family and my eyes are yours family.

[00:08:22]>> Yes.

[00:08:23]>> This is now the moment of truth for us to go. So from here to down there that's 688 ft. And let us see how quickly we're able to cover that distance. Also another thing we have to look out for. I think there are bats bats inside. So we have to be very cautious where that is concerned.

[00:08:49]But you can see a lot of water dripping, dripping, dripping, dripping through.

[00:08:59]I can tell you this in terms of work, quality work built just over a century ago. And you see a lot of the logs as we look. So let's go one love Jamaica farm. It look like somebody had passed through this area and cut some wood and it's somewhere in here. We can even notice that there is some amount of plant life coming up in here and there's no light and that is almost incredible. I can understand because of the water situation why we would have plants but there's no light. So you know some kind of study must have been must needs to be done on why these plants are flourishing under here.

[00:09:52]I have no I have no idea. I can't explain why.

[00:09:56]>> You're looking at plants growing inside a railway tunnel. No direct sunlight.

[00:10:01]But there's something else in here. soil and that changes everything. The answer starts with what you have above. Over 90% of Manchester Parish's limestone, which gives it an abundance of cockpits, sink holes, caves, and underground passages. That limestone is porous.

[00:10:19]Water doesn't run off it. It seeps straight through it. Every time it rains in these mountains, that water filters down through the rock, carrying with it dissolved minerals and fine organic matter from the surface. Over decades, that material accumulates on the tunnel floor and builds into soil. Wind does the rest. A 688 ft tunnel has two open entrances, creating a natural corridor that carries seeds, leaves, and top soil in from both ends. and moisture. Life follows entrances where fragments of light penetrate. Ferns, mosses, and liver warts take hold, thriving in the cool, damp environment the tunnel provides. Mosses lack the waxy coating that protects most plants from dehydration, which is exactly why they only grow in areas high in moisture and low sunlight. This tunnel was made for them. Deeper in where almost no light reaches, algae takes over using alternative forms of metabolism that do not require sunlight at all. But here's what makes this specific to Jamaica. The limestone car geology of this region has been forming for over 15 million years.

[00:11:36]And the rain water percolating through it carries dissolved minerals that feed plant life even in the dark. Jamaica's tropical climate means the rain never truly stops. So, this tunnel isn't just a forgotten railway structure. It has become its own ecosystem, fed by Manchester's ancient limestone, watered by Jamaica's tropical range, rooted in soil that formed itself from nothing.

[00:12:02]The train stopped coming over 30 years ago. The plants never got the memo. But here we go a bit further. you know that these are what you call car rocks which you know which is is what allows all this water to flow through.

[00:12:22]So I think we are just about halfway through here and we can see more of the construction for this more than century old tunnel here in the comfort all community.

[00:12:43]And you can see that that section a section there would have broken off. And surprisingly the timber that is used here seems to be in very good condition almost preserved as you can take a closer look at it.

[00:13:06]And as we make it a bit closer, we are almost a little bit over halfway through the cave. Not the cave, the tunnel. If you notice that some you see this kind of construction which is kind of a old rot iron construction here and then the other sections in which is just the actual rocks that have been cut.

[00:13:45]So almost through one love Jamaica family.

[00:13:50]I hope none of you are scared um with us doing this trick but you know I am just really drawn to why these you know plants seem to be able to survive under here without having any kind of natural light.

[00:14:18]And look, you can see I think that is some kind of drainage.

[00:14:24]And you can see a kind of metal coming from not sure exactly what would have been top of those areas that into the wall.

[00:14:40]So, as we continue this journey, one love Jamaica family. Down there is my eyes. I think he's taking a closer look at the plant life here.

[00:14:56]So, let me know.

[00:15:14]So in um I think in 1963, Railway Magazine account noted that the mountain sections of the network had 41 tunnels cut straight through solid rock generally unlined and with no portals and described the Jamaican railway as covering some of the most difficult standard gauge mountain sections in the world.

[00:15:41]So you know that it was really great craftsmanship that was able to do all of this work back then.

[00:15:53]And you know respect goes out to all of the individuals who had you know made huge sacrifices because you know that you know constructing something like this also would have come with some amount of danger.

[00:16:11]So again, you can hear more of the water coming in from the rocks and you see some more of the plant life that we're looking at here closely.

[00:16:28]So now we're getting closer and closer to the end.

[00:16:34]And again, look again at the rock area.

[00:16:42]Visibility is not the greatest as you'd expect. You know, I wonder how long it took a train from one end to the next end. I also noticed a very interesting route here.

[00:16:56]almost look like something else when I looked on but I realized it's actually roots that have come through the rock formation and I can see them aligned on this section and here we are one love Jerica family we have now made it to the other end of this tunnel here in comfort all Manchester, Jamaica.

[00:17:32]And I know that some of you would have probably been holding your breath and be a bit worried, but you know, we were good, man. We were good. With the grace of God, you know, that carried us through.

[00:17:49]But that was quite interesting. Even when you come on the outside here, you can notice how the trees are growing out from the rocks stretching straight up to the sky.

[00:18:08]I love Jamaica family.

[00:18:11]You know I wonder where this now apart from here where does it lead to in terms well no there's no wondering this rail track would go next to Balaclava on its way to Montego Bay also there's a very interesting story about Bal Balaclava you know um we know most persons talk about the the Kendall train crash but there was also ever serious train crash in Balaclava and that's something else that we'll be looking at but for another video in the series. But just look over here at this plant. The interesting how the roots are so well organized and you know almost like by design how it just crawls up on the wall and straight up.

[00:19:14]So here it is. You can hear all the bird life and so on here. And I said I was surprised to see when I look in terms of since closure of the railway system, the condition that I saw the timber that were on the rail tracks there while we were making our way just a while ago.

[00:19:40]>> Deep in the mountains of Manchester Parish, there's a tunnel that most Jamaicans have never heard of. It is called the Comfort Hall Tunnel and it was built over 130 years ago. Jamaica's railway was the first to open outside of Europe and North America. Not the second, not the third, the first. But the railway didn't reach Manchester overnight. It wasn't until 1895 that the line finally pushed through from Porus all the way to Montego Bay. Completed under the Americanowned West India Improvement Company. And to get through Manchester's mountains, they had to go through the rock itself. A 1963 railway account described the Jamaican mountain sections as covering some of the most difficult standard gauge mountain terrain in the entire world with tunnels cut straight through solid rock unlined and with no portals. The comfort tunnel is 688 ft long. No machinery, no power tools as we know them today. Just men cutting through solid limestone by hand.

[00:20:48]Manchester's surface is over 90% limestone, one of the hardest and most unforgiving terrains to cut through in the Caribbean. The line through this section climbed to around 1,700 ft above sea level with some of the steepest gradients and sharpest curves on the entire route. Every train that passed through this tunnel was navigating one of the most punishing stretches of railway ever built in this region. For nearly a century, Jamaicans passed through this darkness. Farmers, traders, families, and children. When the railway finally closed in 1992, inland communities like those near this tunnel were never the same again. The trade and commerce the railway brought simply disappeared. The tunnel remains carved into Manchester's limestone by Jamaican hands over a 100 years ago, erased from memory, but not from the mountain.

[00:21:45]So, one love Jamaica farm. We're just going to take a little walk up this way to see just what we might find here. Um, some meters away from the tunnel here in the comfort all community.

[00:22:04]And you can see more of the rail track as we make our way through this area.

[00:22:11]And I'm, you know, wondering what has gotten the attention of my eyes are yours.

[00:22:20]It's quite interesting. Oh, and there seems to be one of these.

[00:22:27]What you would be That's an old That's a old light pole or a old telegraph pole.

[00:22:37]Does it look like one love Jamaica family?

[00:22:41]This is where you all come in you know what is exactly is this pole was this pole used for you know so we can explain if that is in relation to any kind of telegraph or so on and we notice just behind it look like some kind of farm but this is just behind you that is where the hillside that the tunnel has cut through and I can tell you that was great ingenuity by the men and women of that time. One love of Jamaica fam. So, we're going to now head back and make our exit through the tunnel.

[00:23:30]So, we're going to travel that 688 ft once more. You know, to be honest, when I was just going through, I tell you, I love Jamaica family. I was a little bit on the nervous side, but you know, as soon as I made my way about halfway, which by then I had no other choice, you know, it just started to feel okay.

[00:23:55]But, you know, now I've had that experience before. I'm going to just head back through now and see how long or how quickly it might take us to make our way back through the tunnel. Wonder family. Now I have my trusty little flashlight on hand and you know here we go.

[00:24:24]But I tell you, I really admire the kind of work that I've seen done in here. You know, you know, a lot of water. You can't hear the water droplets coming down. So, you know, a lot of water is pouring through this quote unquote hillside here in Manchester. And we are on the western side of Manchester close to bordering St. Elizabeth. Is that correct?

[00:24:59]>> Yes, >> exactly. Yeah. You mind can't see my eye cuz it's very dark. He's right there though. He's right here.

[00:25:07]>> So don't be nervous people. He hasn't disappeared.

[00:25:11]>> Yeah, it's just very dark. It's almost pitch black literally. But I was telling you about the the condition of the timber. It's very good condition.

[00:25:25]They're talking about being left for decades.

[00:25:30]But, you know, this is one of those um I don't want to necessarily use the word hard stopping adventures, but one of those adventures that kind of have your senses tingling, you know, wondering what will happen with each step. Just like I showed you earlier when I saw well eventually realized it was a route but it looked like something else on the corner um just beside the track you know I was like stunned a little bit when I realized oh it's some roots I see that stretch down here man >> yes >> yeah what love family so we I would say 2/ird the way now back through the tunnel.

[00:26:23]We are about less than it should take us about another 30 seconds you would say.

[00:26:30]What would you say my eyes to get to the end?

[00:26:33]>> 30 seconds to exit.

[00:26:34]>> To exit. So in order So you would say in terms of clearing this tunnel, it what it's about a 2 minute walk or less than that?

[00:26:43]>> Yes. 2 minutes.

[00:26:44]>> 2 minutes max. Just and that's at an easy pace.

[00:26:47]>> Easy. Easy. If you were trying to go fast.

[00:26:50]>> Yes.

[00:26:50]>> Then it's a much >> minute and a half.

[00:26:52]>> Yes. Exactly.

[00:26:55]So here one go family and my eyes are yours family. We're on the next end of the cave, you know. And I tell you that see these kind of things are important for us as content creators, especially from different parts of the island to, you know, combine cuz he's carrying me in his comfort zone. He knows this area and and and pun intended. Yes. Comfort zone.

[00:27:24]Comfort all. Yes. And it I really appreciate that and we need to do more.

[00:27:29]And basically if he should come into for more and Kingston, you know, I'd grant him the same favor in terms of carrying him around. And we just need to collab more as creators, help each other to grow, you know. Yes, sir.

[00:27:41]>> Help each other to grow. All of our channels can grow and we get better over time. And you can see some more of these very large trees. This one apparently fell in the way here.

[00:27:56]So, so we have exited the tunnel and that's let us just take a last look. One love Jamaica family to see that beautiful view just behind us.