In 1909 the road over Donner Pass followed the old wagon trail, heading up to the summit from Donner Lake, entered the Central Pacific Railroad tunnel underneath the pass, continued through a snow shed, and another railroad tunnel, and only then diverged from the railroad to continue the climb up and over the summit. There was a protocol to navigating that section. Drivers approached the snowsheds and stopped, turning off the auto engine so they could hear better. They got out of their vehicles and opened one of the sliding doors on the side of the shed. They listened for approaching trains. Hearing none they went back to their cars and restarted the engines and drove across the tracks and then alongside the tracks to the sliding door on the other side. This was far from foolproof so the system resulted in a number of accidents, enough to warrant the construction of the country's first automobile underpass beneath a railroad just a year later - Date? Photographer? - Donner Summit Historical Society.