Blue Ridge Tunnel
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| North Entrance to the Blue Ridge Tunnel | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Line | Blue Ridge Railroad |
| Location | Augusta / Nelson counties, near Rockfish Gap, Virginia |
| Coordinates | 38°02′18″N 78°51′45″W / 38.0383°N 78.8625°W (Northwest Portal of new Tunnel) |
| Status | planned to be used as part
of a future rail trail project |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1858 |
| Owner | Blue Ridge Railroad |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 4,263 ft (1,299 m) |
| Gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) |
The Blue Ridge Tunnel, also known as the Crozet 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.
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[edit] Construction
The Blue Ridge Railroad was incorporated by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1849 with Claudius Crozet as chief engineer. Its purpose was to provide a crossing of the Blue Ridge Mountains for the Virginia Central Railroad.
The Virginia Board of Public Works, founded in 1816, was always keen to help with internal improvements and owned some of the Virginia Central stock. It also owned virtually all of the Blue Ridge Railroad.
A civil engineer of considerable skill, Crozet had identified the eventual route as early as 1839. Rail service reached Charlottesville by 1851; westward, the railroad closely followed the alignment of the ancient Three Notch'd Road.
To protect its investment and enable transportation, the State then incorporated and financed the Blue Ridge Railroad to accomplish the hard and expensive task of crossing the Blue Ridge mountain barrier to the west. Rather than attempting the more formidable Swift Run Gap, the state-owned Blue Ridge Railroad built over the mountains at the next major gap to the south, Rockfish Gap near Afton Mountain.
Overseen by Crozet, the crossing was accomplished by building 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 a decade before the invention of dynamite, the complex was dug though solid granite with only hand drills and black powder. The tunnel was less than 6 inches (150 mm) off perfect alignment when it was holed through on Christmas Day 1856.
When complete, the Blue Ridge Tunnel was the longest in the United States and one of the longest tunnels in the world, a remarkable feat of engineering. It opened to rail traffic in April 1858, and was considered to be one of the engineering wonders of the modern world.
[edit] American Civil War
During the American Civil War, the infantry under Confederate General Stonewall Jackson earned the nickname "foot cavalry" by traveling very quickly across the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the consternation of the Union leaders opposing them. To do this, Jackson used his detailed knowledge of the gaps in the Blue Ridge and also utilized the Blue Ridge Tunnel as a passageway for his troops.
[edit] Replacement
The Blue Ridge Railroad ceased to exist once the route across the mountains was completed, becoming a part of the Virginia Central Railroad. In 1868 the Virginia Central was merged with another state-chartered railroad, the Covington and Ohio Railroad, to create the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. This helped achieve Virginia's long-term goal of linking its navigable rivers of the Chesapeake Bay watershed with the Ohio River. The C&O Railroad was subsequently sold to Collis Potter Huntington.
The C&O replaced the Blue Ridge Tunnel in 1944 with a larger, parallel tunnel to accommodate increased rail traffic of World War II materiel. The new tunnel - which was 4 feet (1.2 m) off alignment when constructed - is now referred to as the Blue Ridge Tunnel. It is still in use by CSX Transportation, the Buckingham Branch Railroad and Amtrak.
[edit] Future use
After the original tunnel was replaced, it became known as the Crozet Tunnel in honor of its remarkable engineer, for whom the nearby unincorporated community of Crozet is named. It is currently planned to be used as part of a rail trail project.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Hansen, Brett (May 2008). "Uniting the Commonwealth: The Blue Ridge Tunnel". Civil Engineering (Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers) 78 (8): 40–41. ISSN 0885-7024. http://www.ASCE.org/publications.
