Trail/Aban/C&O/Virginia Central/Blue Ridge Crozet Tunnel

(see  below for satellite image)

At 15:31 in the S3 E4 episode of the Science Channel's "Mysteries of the Abandoned" series is a presentation about the Crozet Railroad Tunnel. So that motivated me to do some research.

It was started in 1850 as part of Virginia's effort to compete with New York (Erie Canal), Philadelphia (a complex system of canals and inclines), and Baltimore (B&O Railroad) to support Richmond as a port for America's markets on the other side of the mountains, specifically the Blue Ridge Mountains. What is now West Virginia was still part of Virginia in 1850 so the western boarder of the state was the Ohio River. But no railroad was willing to attempt the crossing of the Blue Ridge Mountains because of the expense. So Virginia decided to use public funds to build the 17-mile Blue Ridge Railroad. When finished in 1858, Virginia Central assumed control. In 1868, the Virginia Central merged with the Covington & Ohio to form the Chesapeake & Ohio. In 1873, the 423-mile railroad from Richmond to the Ohio River was finally completed. [BlueRidgeTunnel]

Photo from HAER VA,63-AFT.V,1--2 from va0253
Northeast Portal [It seems to me that this sould be the northwest portal.]

It was dug with two crews, one at each end of the tunnel. The southeast portal is not as pretty as the northern portal.

Photo from HAER VA,63-AFT.V,1--7 from va0253
Southeast Portal

Satellite plus Paint

As you can see in the following diagram, there is a sharp turn at the southeast end. Crozet was the longest of the four tunnels the railroad used to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Diagram from HAER VA,63-AFT.V,1 from va0253

When completed in 1858, this 4,273' (1,302m) tunnel was the longest in the US and one of the longest in the world. "As the project predated dynamite, the work was done with hand tools and black powder, making it exceedingly slow and dangerous; the average pace of progress was one foot per side per day. It’s pretty amazing, then, that when the two sides finally met in the belly of Afton Mountain on Christmas Day in 1856, they were a mere six inches off perfect alignment. This Blue Ridge Tunnel was used until 1944, when it was replaced by an adjacent parallel tunnel that was able to accommodate larger freight trains. As this new tunnel became known as the Blue Ridge Tunnel, the original was renamed the Crozet Tunnel in honor of the great engineer [who designed and supervised the construction]." [AtlasObscura]

Photo from HAER VA,63-AFT.V,2--1 from va0253
GENERAL VIEW OF ENTRANCE TO BLUE RIDGE TUNNEL (LEFT) FROM SOUTHEAST. ORIGINAL BLUE RIDGE R.R. (CROZET) TUNNEL IS VISIBLE AT RIGHT. - Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, Blue Ridge Tunnel, Highway 250 at Rockfish Gap, Afton, Nelson County, VA

Since dynamite was not patented until 1867, the tunnel was built using black powder in holes dug with hand tools in hard rock. The rock was either granite or even harder metamorphic rock. Hard rock is bad news for the construction workers, but it is good news for those who want to restore it as a trail. Unlike the CGW Winston Tunnel in Illinois, which required continual maintenance by CGW to keep it open, this tunnel is still viable after decades of no maintenance. In the 1950s, a company installed two concrete bulkheads as part of a plan to store gas in the tunnel. But that project was not successful. So one of the tasks for constructing a trail would be to remove those bulkheads.

When you do a Google search, most of the hits are about building a trail through the tunnel. I didn't read the details because the fact that one is being built is the important information. But I gather the construction is not progressing as fast as expected because of funding issues.

SteamPhotos has more details concerning the construction. The TV show explained that the tall horseshoe shape allowed an upper and lower construction face at each end. So there were four construction faces.

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