Church Hill Tunnel
The sealed western entrance to the Church hill Tunnel
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| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Line | Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) |
| Location | Richmond, Virginia |
| Status | Unsafe, sealed |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1875 |
| Closed | 1925 |
| Owner | CSX Transportation |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 4,000 feet |
| No. of tracks | none at present |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) |
Church Hill Tunnel is an old Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) tunnel, built in the early 1870s, which extends approximately 4,000 feet under the Church Hill section of Richmond, Virginia. In 1925, the tunnel collapsed on a work train, killing four and trapping a steam locomotive and some flat cars. Rescue efforts only resulted in further collapse, and the tunnel was eventually sealed for safety reasons.
Portions of the tunnel have continued to wreak havoc above in the years since, and several houses and a wall of a church were destroyed near 25th and Broad Streets. More recently, tennis courts and the wall of a house seem to have been victims farther east. Long the subject of community speculation and trespassing incidents at its eastern end, the tunnel is owned by CSX Transportation. The tunnel, which is still considered dangerous, was featured in a 1998 newspaper article by Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter Mark Holmberg, who explored portions from the eastern end with professional caving personnel and equipment.
The Church Hill Tunnel was completed in 1875 for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) which was seeking to extend its trackage (of the former Virginia Central Railroad) from a terminus in the Shockhoe Valley section of downtown Richmond to connect with the new Peninsula Subdivision extending approximately 75 miles southeast down the Virginia Peninsula to reach Collis P. Huntington's new coal pier at Newport News on the harbor of Hampton Roads. The tracks to the new tunnel left the old Virginia Central line west of 17th street and curved southeasterly to enter the tunnel east of N. 18th Street and north of E. Marshall Street under Cedar Street. The east end of the tunnel appeared just north of Williamsburg Road near 31st Street below Libby Terrace Park. The Peninsula railroad line was completed and opened in late 1881, and the coal flowed eastward for export in massive quantities.
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