Blue Ridge Tunnel

Thanks to a tip from the Notes From Cville blog I found The Blue Ridge Tunnel on Saturday.  I was so impressed last week when I read about it on the Notes From Cville blog that I wanted to find it too.  It was built back in 1856 and used by trains to pass through the mountain.  You can’t walk through The Tunnel anymore because there is a cement barrier in the middle.  There was ankle deep water on the Afton Mountain side of the tunnel but we were told (by a property owner in the area) that it gets up to waist deep high before you hit the barrier in the middle.  He also informed us that there were two pipes that connected the two at the cement wall in the middle.  We decided not to get wet since the water was pretty cold.

After we had seen the Afton side we went to the Waynesboro side of the tunnel.  We parked at the animal hospital off 250 after you pass 64 and walked from there (they have a nice little bridge that leads over the creek.)  You have to cross 250 to get onto the trail.  There isn’t much of a trail leading to the tunnel and there were thorn bushes everywhere.  I have some nice cuts even through my jeans from the thorns.

The Tunnel was amazing!  Unlike the seemingly unfinished Afton side, the Waynesboro side is lined with bricks.  I can’t believe it was built before dynamite, and even though workers started from opposite ends they met in the middle with less than a 6 inch difference.  The tunnel was constructed using gunpowder and drills.  We brought flashlights and walked until we hit the cement wall in the middle.  There were bats everywhere.  Some bricks had fallen and there was some grafitti on the walls, but it is still in very good condition.

Update: The C-ville Reported that Perriello Requested $4 Million in Funding for the Blue Ridge project.  It looks like the funding might come through sooner than expected!