Crozet Tunnel West Portal

USA / Virginia / Waynesboro /
 ruins, railway, tunnel, abandoned / shut down, rail-trail, interesting place

An entry portal of the historic mid 19th Century tunnel and US Civil War non-combat site.

Says Wikipedia:
(block quote)
Blue Ridge Tunnel was the longest of four tunnels built on the Blue Ridge Railroad to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains at Rockfish Gap near Afton Mountain in central Virginia. It has been named a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark....Overseen by (Claudius) Crozet, the crossing was accomplished by using four tunnels, including the 4,263-foot (1,299 m) Blue Ridge Tunnel near the top of the pass. With construction proceeding from either side, the complex was dug though solid granite with only hand drills and black powder, a decade before the invention of dynamite. The tunnel was less than 6 inches (150 mm) off perfect alignment when it was holed-through on Christmas Day 1856. When complete, it was the longest in the US and one of the longest tunnels in the world, a remarkable feat of engineering. Opened to rail traffic in April 1858, it was considered to be one of the engineering wonders of the modern world.
(end quote)

Circa 2000, much of the former trackbed was partly flooded. Local lore says the tunnel is flooded at midsection ---also that there are occasional plans to preserve the site in the future as a rails-to-trails linear park.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   38°2'20"N   78°51'43"W

Comments

  • Looks like the state is serious about ruining this into a park: http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/ap/blue-ridge-tunnel-restoration-gets-state-boost/article_a731fd40-1477-11e3-bcbe-001a4bcf6878.html
  • Bah, autocorrect fail: TURNING this into a park. Hopefully that's not autocorrect prescience.
This article was last modified 10 years ago