Blue Ridge Tunnel
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Blue Ridge Tunnel (även känd som Crozet Tunnel) är en historisk järnvägstunnel som byggdes under uppförandet av Blue Ridge Railroad på 1850-talet. Tunneln var den västligaste och längsta av fyra tunnlar konstruerade av Claudius Crozet för att korsa Blue Ridge Mountains vid Rockfish Gap i centrala Virginia. Vid köpcentret: Konvertera i längd var tunnelen USAs längsta tunnel vid tidpunkten för slutförandet 1858. Tunneln användes av Virginia Central Railroad från dess öppning till 1868, då linjen omorganiserades som Chesapeake och Ohio Railroad (byttes namn på Chesapeake och Ohio Railway 1878). Chesapeake och Ohio ledde tåg genom tunneln tills den övergavs och ersattes av en ny tunnel 1944. Den nya tunneln fick också namnet "Blue Ridge Tunnel", även om den ursprungliga tunneln fortfarande är övergiven i närheten. Den gamla Blue Ridge-tunneln har sedan dess utnämnts till ett historiskt civilingenjörs-landmärke av American Society of Civil Engineers.
Konstruktion
Blue Ridge Railroad införlivades av Commonwealth of Virginia 1849 med Claudius Crozet som överingenjör. Syftet var att tillhandahålla en tunnel genom Blue Ridge Mountains för Virginia Central Railroad in i Shenandoah Valley.
Virginia Board of Public Works, som grundades 1816, stödde många interna förbättringar i staten, och ägde en del av Virginia Central i lager såväl som i stort sett hela Blue Ridge Railroad.
En civilingenjör med stor skicklighet, Crozet hade identifierat den eventuella vägen redan 1839. Järnvägstrafiken nådde Charlottesville år 1851; västerut följde järnvägen nära anpassningen av den antika Three Notch'd Road.
För att skydda sina investeringar och möjliggöra transport införlivade och finansierade staten sedan Blue Ridge Railroad för att utföra den hårda och dyra uppgiften att korsa Blue Ridge-bergsbarriären i väster. I stället för att försöka det mer formidabla Swift Run Gap byggde den statliga Blue Ridge Railroad genom bergen vid nästa stora klyftan i söder, Rockfish Gap nära Afton Mountain.
Övervakat av Crozet genomfördes övergången genom att bygga fyra tunnlar, inklusive Blue Ridge Tunnel nära toppen av passet. När konstruktionen fortsatte från endera sidan ett decennium före uppfinningen av dynamit, grävdes komplexet fast fast granit med endast handborr och svart krut. Tunnelen var mindre än av perfekt inriktning när den hållades igenom 29 december 1856.
När Blue Ridge Tunnel var klar var USAs längsta i USA och en av de längsta tunnlarna i världen, en anmärkningsvärd prestation av teknik. Det öppnade för järnvägstrafik i april 1858 och ansågs vara ett av de moderna världens tekniska underverk.
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.[1]
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 Railroad (renamed Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1878). 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 fot (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.
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 town of Crozet is named. It is currently planned to be used as part of a rail trail project.
The Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel Foundation secured a $749,000 grant through the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Commonwealth Transportation Board to begin Phase I of the project to reopen the long-closed tunnel with a bike path and hiking trail. Phase I will be a footpath from the former Afton rail depot to a concrete bulwark 700 feet into the tunnel. The first piece of the trail will begin and end on the east side of Afton Mountain.[2]
"This is definitely safe where we're going," district supervisor Allen Hale said. "But once you get to the tunnel and someone walks through here and gets all the way up, they're going to want to go in... The ultimate goal … is to have the tunnel open all the way through to the west side to the Blue Ridge Mountains and have a trail connection to U.S. Route 250 on the other side," Hale said... According to The News & Advance archives, the $450,000 required for Phase II has already been raised. Hale hopes to begin Phase II some time this year. The date for Phase III has yet to be set.[3]
Mapping the tunnel
In the fall of 2017, a University of Virginia assistant professor and two graduate students used a ground-based autonomous robot to scan and map the tunnel using LiDAR. The result was a three-dimensional map of the tunnel which can be used for restoration or construction projects in the future.[4]
See also
- Brookville Tunnel
- Greenwood Tunnel
- Kingwood Tunnel, the Blue Ridge Tunnel's predecessor as longest tunnel in the United States
Footnotes
- ↑ Putnam 2011, p. 41.
- ↑ Aaron Richardson. September 15, 2013. "Project opens rail tunnel’s past." The (Charlottesville) Daily Progress.
- ↑ Tobi Walsh. "Inside the Blue Ridge Tunnel: The historic railroad tunnel, built in the 1850s, is set to become a walking trail." The (Lynchburg) News & Advance. June 21, 2015.
- ↑ Luafel i Modul:Citation/CS1/Date_validation på rad 552: attempt to call upvalue 'is_set' (a nil value).
References
- Dixon, Thomas W., Jr. (2008). A Short History of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Mountain Subdivision. Clifton Forge, Virginia: Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society.
- Drinker, Henry Sturgis (1893). Tunneling, explosive compounds, and rock drills. John Wiley. https://books.google.com/books?id=YPoiAQAAMAAJ. Läst 5 september 2013.
- ”History of the C&O Railway”. History of the C&O Railway. Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society. http://www.cohs.org/history/. Läst 6 september 2013.
- Luafel i Modul:Citation/CS1/Date_validation på rad 552: attempt to call upvalue 'is_set' (a nil value).
- Logan, Bernard S. (November 1998). Railroad History on the Blue Ridge. Clifton Forge, Virginia: Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society, Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine.
- Luafel i Modul:Citation/CS1/Date_validation på rad 552: attempt to call upvalue 'is_set' (a nil value).
- Lyons, Mary E.. The Blue Ridge Tunnel: a remarkable engineering feat in antebellum Virginia. [S.l.]: History Press, 2014. ISBN 9781626194212; 1626194211. Notes: 191 pages: illustrations (some color), maps (some color).
- Lyons, Mary E. 2013. "From Skibbereen to Staunton: Callaghans at the Blue Ridge Tunnel". Augusta Historical Bulletin. Volume 49 (2013), pages 61–72. Named Person: Callahan family.; Bridget Callaghan; Mary Callaghan O'Connell; Thomas Callaghan; Dennis Callaghan; John Callaghan; Michael Callaghan; Mary Ann Marmion.
- Putnam, William L. (2011). Great Railroad Tunnels of North America. McFarland. https://books.google.com/books?id=1bbCu5mq8MIC&lpg=PA41&ots=WO_8C8063C&dq=stonewall%20jackson%20blue%20ridge%20tunnel&pg=PA41#v=onepage&q=stonewall%20jackson%20blue%20ridge%20tunnel&f=false.
- Turner, Kristina. 2011. "Forgotten Heroes: Clann Mhór: the Blue Ridge Railroad Project Honors 19th-Century Irish and Enslaved Laborers". Broadside: the Magazine of the Library of Virginia. (Spring 2011), p. 10-11. Notes: Includes photos. "The Clann Mhór project, based in Charlottesville and documented in ... http://Clanmhor.blogspot.com[död länk]"
