![]() This is such a wild experience, and one we loved. With all of this history, as well as its demarcation as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, this documentary on the renovation and importance will surely be fascinating. In 2007, CSX donated it to Nelson County and after successful fundraising and intense renovations, it reopened to the public as a multi-use trail in November 2020. In 1944, a larger tunnel was built to accommodate the large freight trains, and this tunnel by Crozet was abandoned by officials (although rumor has it locals would challenge and dare each other to go through the dilapidated and eerie tunnel). Whether you share that information with your family is up to you, of course… Some believe that with all this human tragedy within its thick and impenetrable walls, there are secrets held within, making the tunnel “very” haunted. (The ventilation was so poor in the tunnel that engine smoke would fly into the passenger cars if the windows weren’t shut.) With the windows open, the passengers thought the incoming smoke meant the train was on fire and panicked, one girl jumping from the train. There is also a story about passengers on one ill-fated train ride through the tunnel that misunderstood the conductor’s rules to close all windows when going through the tunnel. Living and working conditions were brutal and many truly awful deaths occurred. Like most largescale and dangerous construction projects during that era, the tunnel was dug by hand (dynamite not yet invented) by slaves and Irish immigrants. and one of the longest tunnels in the world at the time. At 4,273 feet, it was the longest tunnel in the U.S. We chose the west entrance because there is more parking there.The Blue Ridge Tunnel itself has a gruesome, rough and interesting history. To see the tunnel, you can park at the west entrance located on Route 250 or you can park at the east entrance on Route 6. ![]() SP, Sherman, my mom, and my cousin and her husband hiked to see the tunnel. My brother and cousin entered from the east side, so they didn’t get to venture very far into the tunnel. Propane was never stored there but the plugs remained until recently. The propane company built concrete plugs on either end of the tunnel, 750 feet from the east side and 1,900 feet from the west side. In the 1980s when adventurous teens explored the tunnel, they couldn’t pass all the way through it because in the 1950s a propane company leased the tunnel to use for storage. My brother and cousin did this but I never did. He also said that there was a water source in the tunnel.Īs a teen, I knew boys who walked down the train tracks in Afton to see the tunnel. He would press his body against the wall as the train passed by. ![]() Sometimes granddaddy would be in the tunnel and a train would come. What I was told about the tunnel came from my mom who heard the stories from her father. When my maternal grandfather was a young man, he used the tunnel as a shortcut when walking between where his parents lived in Waynesboro and where is grandparents lived on Ennis Mountain in the Rockfish Valley. You can read more about the history of the railroad on the Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Foundation website.
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