Historical Highway Markers

Blue Ridge Tunnel

RA-7

The Blue Ridge Tunnel, which opened to railroad traffic in 1858, lies beneath Rockfish Gap, where Interstate 64, U.S. Route 250, Skyline Drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Appalachian Trail converge. The Blue Ridge Railroad Company, overseen by the Virginia Board of Public Works, began preliminary work on the project in 1849 with Claudius Crozet (1789-1864) as chief engineer. Irish laborers and enslaved African Americans built the ellipse-shaped, single-track tunnel using hand tools and black powder. At 4,273 feet, it was the longest railroad tunnel in the U.S. when completed. The need to accommodate larger locomotives led to the tunnel’s replacement in 1944.

Department of Historic Resources, 2022

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Alexandria Gazette, 2 March 1849. Richmond Enquirer, 12 April 1850. Staunton Spectator, 21 April 1858. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 26 March, 19 July 1944. Annual Report of the Board of Public Works to the General Assembly of Virginia (1850). “Overview and FAQs,” Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel Foundation, accessed August 3, 2021, https://www.blueridgetunnel.org/overview-faqs/ Dr. Gary K. Rogers, Phone Interview Regarding the Construction and Restoration of the Blue Ridge Tunnel, interview by Sandra Esposito, 8 July 2021. Col. William Couper, Claudius Crozet, Soldier--Scholar--Educator--Engineer (1789-1864) (Charlottesville: The Historical Pub. Co., Inc., 1936). Robert F. Hunter and Edwin L. Dooley, Claudius Crozet: French Engineer in America 1790-1864 (Charlottesville: University Press Of Virginia, 1989). William D. Middleton, Landmarks on the Iron Road (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999). Mary E. Lyons, ed., Claudius Crozet and the Blue Ridge Railroad: Selected Letters (2017). Mary E. Lyons, The Blue Ridge Tunnel: A Remarkable Engineering Feat in Antebellum Virginia (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2014). Mary E. Lyons, Slave Labor on Virginia's Blue Ridge Railroad (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2020). William Lowell Putnam, Great Railroad Tunnels of North America (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2011).