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Why the youngsters, both around 14, decided to go exploring the local curiosity known to some as Devil's Hole during a relentless downpour was anyone's guess.
The teens, who found the legendary passageway online, entered the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway tunnel off River Road at the Fairview end shortly before 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 30, Edgewater Fire Lt. Robert Jacobson said.
The boys made it more than halfway through and were 100 or so yards from the Edgewater end when they found themselves stranded on a metal pipe in water that had risen more than five feet, the lieutenant said.
They managed to gel cell service and reached authorities back on the Fairview side, he said.
Jacobsen and fellow Fire Lt. Thomas Clinton donned rescue suits and swam in with an inflatable rescue raft.
The boys, who were sitting on the pipe, were brought out safely and handed over to EMS about two hours after their "adventure" began, he said.
Both checked out fine at Palisades General Hospital, responders said.
Legend has it that skeletal remains could be found in the tunnel, which runs beneath a cemetery.
There have also been tall tales about wild dogs and devil worshippers, not to mention the ghost of a girl believed killed by a train -- none true, of course.
"Many of us went through that tunnel when we were kids," said Jacobson, who's also an Edgewater police officer. "I don't know why these two decided to do it during that kind of weather."
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