Blue Ridge Tunnel
National Register of Historic Places

Blue Ridge Tunnel

Afton, Nelson County, Virginia
Listed
April 25, 2023
Type
Structure
Period
Early Republic
Ref No.
100008324

About this property

The Blue Ridge Tunnel (also known as the Crozet Tunnel) is a historic railroad tunnel built during the construction of the Blue Ridge Railroad in the 1850s. The tunnel was the westernmost and longest of four tunnels engineered by Claudius Crozet to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains at Rockfish Gap in central Virginia. At 4,237 feet (1,291 m) in length, the tunnel was the longest tunnel in the United States at the time of its completion. The tunnel was used by the Virginia Central Railroad from its opening to 1858, when the line was reorganized as the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (renamed Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1878). The Chesapeake and Ohio routed trains through the tunnel until it was abandoned and replaced by a new tunnel in 1944. The new tunnel was named the "Blue Ridge Tunnel" as well, although the original tunnel still remains abandoned nearby. The old Blue Ridge Tunnel has since been named a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1976. In late 2020, after a decade of stabilization work and restoration as well as access pathway construction, the tunnel was opened to visitors as a linear park.

Location

215 Afton Depot Ln.
Afton, Nelson County, Virginia

Categories

ENGINEERINGTRANSPORTATION
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Questions about this property

When was Blue Ridge Tunnel listed on the National Register?

Blue Ridge Tunnel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 25, 2023.

What type of historic resource is Blue Ridge Tunnel?

Blue Ridge Tunnel is classified as a structure in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Blue Ridge Tunnel?

The period of significance for Blue Ridge Tunnel is recorded as the early_republic era, specifically around 1858.

Can I research the history near Blue Ridge Tunnel?

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