rails
to
trails
winter.14
25
Details about FreeWalkers events can
be found at
freewalkers.org
.
For more
about the East Coast Greenway, go to
greenway.org
.
VIRGINIA
Classroom Under
the Mountain
“
is is not a pickle in a jar,” says
Richard Collins, professor emeritus of
the University of Virginia’s School of
Architecture in Charlottesville. “Its pres-
ervation will advance the understanding
of our place and our culture.” He’s refer-
ring to the Blue Ridge Tunnel, once the
longest railroad tunnel in the country
and now the focus of a special project
for his preservation planning class.
Extending nearly a mile through the
mountains of central Virginia, the 19th-
century tunnel was designed by French
engineer Claudius Crozet. A chance meet-
ing with members of Clann Mhór, a local
group researching the history of the Blue
Ridge Railroad, spurred Collins to make
the tunnel’s preservation a class project.
e tunnel lies at Rockfish Gap
between the communities of Waynesboro
and Afton. When Collins first visited it
with his students in the spring of 2012,
he remembers feeling the tunnel’s cool
breath from afar. Lying black in a field of
thick undergrowth, the tunnel is testa-
ment to the work of hundreds of Irish
laborers and dozens of African-American
slaves who built it between 1850 and
1858.
As the students explored its dim
depths, they saw the record that was left
behind by these workers: chip marks in
the stone, bricks laid to shore up the tun-
nel’s western side, blast holes drilled out
with hand-tools to be filled with black
powder because dynamite had not yet
been invented.
Another professor, Stephen Brighton,
explored the area outside the tunnel.
Clann Mhór asked Brighton, an arche-
ologist from the University of Maryland,
to search for evidence of how and where
the laborers and their families lived.
In 2013, Brighton brought students to
the tunnel to study eight mysterious
platforms set into the mountain’s steep
slope. ey excavated the site and
theorized that the platforms might have
been built for Irish shanties.
e work of Collins, Brighton and
their students is helping to bring fresh
ideas and attention to the tunnel, a
hidden engineering marvel that has sat
unused for decades. In 2007, Nelson
County acquired the tunnel and right-
of-way from CSX for a rail-trail that
will run through the tunnel and extend
outward from each end for a total of
2.2
miles.
e Claudius Crozet Blue
Ridge Tunnel Foundation
is leading the
collaborative effort behind the project.
Construction of the trail’s first phase,
through the eastern portal, is expected to
be underway by the end of 2013.
And the tunnel is soon to be in the
movies. In late 2012, a public presenta-
tion by Collins’s students on how to
preserve and showcase the tunnel’s
history through unique rail-trail design
elements attracted the interest of
Academy Award-winning filmmakers
Paul and Ellen Wagner, who are now
making a documentary on the project.
“
In making the film, we hope not
only to go into the history of the tunnel
and the workers who built it, but also to
provide a contemporary portrait of the
effort of a large number of people com-
ing together to realize this rail-to-trail
project,” says Paul Wagner. “We hope it
will be a model and inspiration for other
projects.”
For more information about the
tunnel restoration and developing rail-
trail, visit
nelsoncounty-va.gov
.
To
learn about the tunnel’s history, explore
Clann Mhór’s website,
clannmhor.org
.
PAUL KICZEK
walking group in New Jersey called the
FreeWalkers that hosts several one-day
walks a year ranging from 10 to 50 miles.
“
So far we’ve been successful at
keeping things free,” says Kiczek, a
resident of Morristown, N.J. “We want
people to experience the walks and stay
healthy. It’s a mix of people that come.
We have people who are out of shape,
speed walkers, the young, the old; one
regular participant is 88.”
Early on, Kiczek found his footing
with the East Coast Greenway Alliance,
which helped promote his events and
provided support stations and water for
participants.
“
Our success helps his success,” says
Dennis Markatos-Soriano, executive
director of the East Coast Greenway
Alliance. “We help to establish an
accessible route that his participants can
enjoy. He shows that we’re building a
resource that people use, and that it’s
worth the investment.”
e two groups partner to host such
events as the
Cross-Jersey Walking
Challenge, which encourages walkers to
rack up 100 miles along the East Coast
Greenway during the year. Outside of
New Jersey, the idea is catching on, with
Freewalkers groups forming in Boston
and Washington, D.C.
Typically, about a hundred people
participate in the long-distance walks.
Kiczek’s vision is to one day see thou-
sands. “Most people do more than they
think they possibly can,” he says. “It’s a
feeling of accomplishment.”
LIZ SARGENT
Students entering the Blue Ridge Tunnel.