Who ever thought that putting holes through super large trees so that cars could drive through was a good idea? A number of big trees in California had tunnels dug through them in the late 1800s and early 1900s. One of the most famous was cut in 1881 through Yosemite’s famous Wawona Tree. It was cut as a tourist attraction, and was the second standing sequoia to be tunnelled – the first, a dead tree, still stands in the Tuolumne Grove in Yosemite). The Wawona Tree stood for 88 summers before falling during the winter of 1968-69 (it was 2,100 years old).
There are currently three different tree drive-through : the Shrine Tree (4,500 years/hollowed by fire), a coast redwood, the Chandelier Tree (2,400 years old/opening cut late 1930s), and the Klamath Tree (785 years old/opening cut 1976).
Cutting holes through such majestic trees really seems like a very odd thing to do.
working by hand 
It seems to me like a very stupid and destructive thing to do.
It does feel like an odd thing to do. I recall driving through one of them when I was a kid (likely the one near Yosemite). Fifteen years or so ago, I drove through one in the lost coast part of Northern California.