Church Hill Tunnel
Encyclopedia
Church Hill Tunnel is an old Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...

 (C&O) tunnel extending for approximately 4,000 feet under the Church Hill
Church Hill
Church Hill, also known as the St. John's Church Historic District, is an Old and Historic District in Richmond, Virginia. This district encompasses the original land plat of the city of Richmond. Church Hill is the eastern terminus of Broad Street, a major east-west thoroughfare in the Richmond...

 section of Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

. Built in the early 1870s, in 1925, the tunnel collapsed on a work train killing four and trapping a steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

 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 a 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
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation operates a Class I railroad in the United States known as the CSX Railroad. It is the main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns approximately 21,000 route miles...

. The tunnel, which is still considered dangerous, was featured in a 1998 newspaper article by Richmond Times-Dispatch
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Richmond Times-Dispatch is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond the capital of Virginia, United States, and is commonly considered the "newspaper of record" for events occurring in much of the state...

 reporter Mark Holmberg, who explored portions from the eastern end with professional caving personnel and equipment.

Purpose

The Church Hill Tunnel was completed in 1875 for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...

 (C&O) which was seeking to extend its trackage (of the former Virginia Central Railroad
Virginia Central Railroad
Virginia Central Railroad was chartered as the Louisa Railroad in 1836 by the Virginia Board of Public Works and had its name changed to Virginia Central Railroad in 1850. It connected Richmond with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad at Gordonsville in 1854, and had expanded westward past the Blue...

) 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
Virginia Peninsula
The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay.Hampton Roads is the common name for the metropolitan area that surrounds the body of water of the same name...

 to reach Collis P. Huntington
Collis P. Huntington
Collis Potter Huntington was one of the Big Four of western railroading who built the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad...

's new coal pier
Coal pier
A coal pier is a transloading facility designed for the transfer of coal between rail and ship.The typical facility for loading ships consists of a holding area and a system of conveyors for transferring the coal to dockside and loading it into the ship's cargo holds...

 at Newport News
Newport News, Virginia
Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...

 on the harbor of Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...

. 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.

Construction problems

The construction of the tunnel was problematic. Unlike the bedrock through which the C&O carved its western tunnels, in Richmond, the blue marl clay shrink-swell soil
Shrink-swell capacity
The Shrink-swell capacity of clay refers to the extent to which a clay will expand when wet and retract when dry. Soil that is problematic due to high capacity is known as shrink-swell soil, or expansive soil.-Description:...

 tended to change with rainfall and groundwater and there were cave-ins during the construction. Ten workers were reportedly killed. The tunnel has remained troublesome throughout its life due to ground water seepage and safety concerns, even after abandonment in 1925.

Safer alternative

In the 1890s, the C&O acquired the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad
Richmond and Allegheny Railroad
The Richmond and Alleghany Railroad was built along the James River along the route of the James River and Kanawha Canal from Richmond on the fall line at the head of navigation to a point west of Lynchburg near Buchanan, Virginia, and combined with the Buchanan and Clifton Forge Railway Company to...

 (R&A) which had been built east from the Blue Ridge Mountains along the towpath of the James River and Kanawha Canal
James River and Kanawha Canal
The James River and Kanawha Canal was a canal in Virginia, which was built to facilitate shipments of passengers and freight by water between the western counties of Virginia and the coast....

, proving an alternate "water level" route to Richmond following the north bank of the James River
James River (Virginia)
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is long, extending to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. The James River drains a catchment comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million...

 and avoiding a more circuitous route which crossed the North Mountain and Afton Mountain via the Blue Ridge Tunnel
Blue Ridge Tunnel
The Blue Ridge Tunnel, also known as the Crozet Tunnel, was the longest of four tunnels built on the Blue Ridge Railroad to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains at Rockfish Gap near Afton Mountain in central Virginia...

 and reached Richmond via the former Virginia Central Railroad
Virginia Central Railroad
Virginia Central Railroad was chartered as the Louisa Railroad in 1836 by the Virginia Board of Public Works and had its name changed to Virginia Central Railroad in 1850. It connected Richmond with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad at Gordonsville in 1854, and had expanded westward past the Blue...

. However, the R&A terminated at Richmond's Byrd Street Station
Broad Street Station (Richmond)
Broad Street Station was a union railroad station in Richmond, Virginia, USA, across Broad Street from the Fan district....

 in the downtown area, and did not have a track connection to the C&O which ended at Shockoe Bottom at Broad Street, some distance away. The Virginia State Capitol
Virginia State Capitol
The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of state government in the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the third capital of Virginia. It houses the oldest legislative body in the United States, the Virginia General Assembly...

 (and Capitol Hill) was directly between the two terminals, so creativity for a less direct connection was needed.

To utilize the new "water level" line to ship coal to Newport News, and as an added benefit, avoid the troublesome tunnel, the C&O constructed a 3 mile-long double track elevated viaduct along the riverfront extending between the area of Hollywood Cemetery east past downtown Richmond, the Shockoe Valley, and Church Hill to join the Peninsula Subdivision at what became Fulton Yard east of the tunnel. With a connection just south of the new Main Street Station
Main Street Station (Richmond)
Richmond Main Street Station is a historic railroad station and office building in Richmond, Virginia. Originally built in 1901, it is currently served by Amtrak, and is planned in the future to become the northern terminus of the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor as well as an intermodal station...

, it was now possible for traffic to come off the old Virginia Central and enter the Peninsula Subdivision without using the Church Hill Tunnel. Portions of the viaduct became known as the Rivanna Subdivision Trestle
Rivanna Subdivision Trestle
The Rivanna Subdivision Trestle is a trestle in Richmond, Virginia at the end of the Rivanna Subdivision. The bridge is the upper level of Triple Crossing, and also crosses United States Routes 360. It parallels the James River, and actually "steps" into it at one section. The bridge connects to...

 (west of Rivanna Junction) and Peninsula Subdivision Trestle
Peninsula Subdivision Trestle
The Peninsula Subdivision Trestle is a railroad trestle in Richmond, Virginia on the Peninsula Subdivision of CSX Transportation.-Details:Starting in the north, the bridge begins to rise and cross East Marshall Street and East Broad Street . It then passes the Main Street Station. Then it crosses...

 (from the former Brown Street Yard through Main Street Station and Rivanna Junxction east to Fulton Yard). The viaduct is believed to be the longest in the United States and is still in use by CSX Corporation
CSX Corporation
CSX Corporation was formed in 1980 by the merger of Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries and eventually merged the various railroads owned by those predecessors into a single line that became known as CSX Transportation. Based in Richmond, Virginia, USA after the merger, in 2003...

, which also owns the abandoned tunnel.)The viaduct is also the highest level of Richmond's famed Triple Crossing
Triple Crossing
Triple Crossing in Richmond, Virginia is believed to be the only place in North America where three Class I railroads cross at different levels at the same spot....

, with railroads at three levels, believed to be the only such place in the world, near where it crosses Richmond's James River Flood Wall.

Tunnel disuse, rehabilitation turns tragic

After completion of the riverfront viaduct in 1901, the Church Hill Tunnel fell into disuse for over 20 years. Then in 1925, to add capacity, the railroad began efforts to restore it to usable condition. On October 2, while repairs were under way, a work train was trapped by a collapse near the western end. Two workmen crawled under flat cars and escaped out the eastern end of the tunnel, and two bodies including the engineer's were recovered, but two other workers were unaccounted for.

During the next week, the community anxiously watched rescue efforts, but each time progress was made, further cave-ins occurred. Eventually, the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) which regulated railroads in Virginia ordered the tunnel sealed for safety reasons. Left inside was the work train complete with a 4-4-0
4-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels...

 steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

 (engine #231) and 10 flat cars.

Later years

Over the years, portions of the tunnel have collapsed, once claiming several houses. The line of the underground tunnel can clearly be traced by dips in some of the north-south streets crossing its path. The largest cave-in to date resulted in creation of a park on Broad Street between 24th and 25th where a church once stood.

The western end is covered with a concrete plug, but for years, the eastern end was used as part of a turning wye for a connection with the Southern Railway's line to West Point
West Point, Virginia
West Point is an incorporated town in King William County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,867 at the 2000 census.-Geography:West Point is located at...

 and could be entered by venturesome trespassers. Based upon a 1998 exploratory expedition by Richmond Times-Dispatch
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Richmond Times-Dispatch is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond the capital of Virginia, United States, and is commonly considered the "newspaper of record" for events occurring in much of the state...

 reporter Mark Holmberg, who explored portions from the eastern end with professional caving
Caving
Caving—also occasionally known as spelunking in the United States and potholing in the United Kingdom—is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems...

 personnel and equipment, it is believed that most of the western portion of the tunnel which has not caved in is filled with water. The western end entrance of the collapsed tunnel can still be seen at the south-east end of an alley off of 18th Street, just north of Marshall.

Recovery discussions

In June 2006, the Virginia Historical Society
Virginia Historical Society
The Virginia Historical Society , founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a major repository, research, and teaching center for Virginia history...

 and other parties announced that they were investigating the possibility of recovering the train and bodies; the Society planned to keep the train for preservation. The History Channel
The History Channel
History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...

 expressed interest in participating in the project. However, when a hole was drilled through the tunnel's seal and a camera was placed inside, the tunnel was discovered to be filled with silt and water, meaning that an excavation of the tunnel would likely cause it to further collapse and cause several homes on Church Hill to be engulfed by massive sinkholes. The project has been put on hold until a way can be found to reinforce Church Hill against any further collapses in the tunnel.

Urban Tale

The Church Hill Tunnel also has a connection to the urban tale of the Richmond Vampire
Richmond Vampire
The Richmond Vampire is an urban legend that began soon after a collapse on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad's Church Hill Tunnel at Church Hill, a district of Richmond, Virginia, which buried several workers alive on October 2, 1925....

.

External links

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