Best trail tunnel opportunities in the area

As noted last week, there are quite a few trail tunnels in the area, including some of the longest in the world. Looking at the four closest states to DC and DC, the number of bike/ped tunnels are pretty impressive:

DC - 2

Maryland - 9

Virginia - 11

West Virginia - 18

Pennsylvania - 17

But there are still plenty of abandoned railroad and highway tunnels in the area that could be be made into trails or parts of trails.

Here, for example, are the longest abandoned tunnels in the area, in order

1. Big Bend Tunnel, WV (6500 feet) - famous for the Ballad of John Henry
2. Laurel Hill Tunnel, PA (4541 feet)
3. Knobley Mountain, PA (4408 feet)
4. Blue Ridge Tunnel, VA (4264 feet)
5. Gallitzin Tunnel, PA (3612 feet)
6. Koontz Tunnel, WV (3164 feet)
7. Lodgeville Tunnel, WV (2708 feet)
8. Chapline Hill Tunnel, WV (2500 feet)
9. Dupont Circle Streetcar Tunnels, DC (2400 feet)
10. Lough Tunnel, WV (1517 feet)

Most of these aren't likely to be trail tunnels.

Big Bend, Lodgeville and Gallitzin tunnels were abandoned, but the railroads were not and now pass through parallel tunnels and so the railroads would surely frown on their adaptive reuse (which would have little utility as well). The Laurel Hill Tunnel which, like the Sideling Hill and Ray's Hill tunnel is an old turnpike tunnel, is currently being used as a test track for race cars. And the Dupont Circle Tunnels (above), as much as I'd like to see the west one turned into a "high line" style facility allowing for through bike/ped traffic (I mean seriously, it would be awesome), are unlikely to ever be reopened for transportation. 

But several of the others have real possibilities. 

Knobley Mountain Tunnel is part of an 6 mile long, out-of-use railroad from Pinto, MD across WV to the Potomac at Patterson Creek. There's already an effort to turn the Blue Ridge Tunnel into part of a trail, with Nelson County, VA amending a bid for restoration work as was just reported today. 

“If this works, which hopefully it will work, the tunnel itself will be substantially restored and rehabilitated, and then we can aim at the third and final phase, which is the trail and the parking lot. The progress is slowly being made,” Carter said during the board meeting.

The Koontz Tunnel, and the shorter 942-foot long Carnifex, are on the same rail line as the Meadow River Rail Trail. Though there's not a lot of clear indication about the plans to take that north to the Koontz tunnel, this map of proposed trails does show the trail going through it. It would presumably bypass the Carnifex which the NPS closed in 2014 for safety reasons.

The Chapline Hill tunnel under Wheeling, WV might someday become part of the Wheeling Heritage Trail; and the Lough Tunnel could become part of an 8-mile long rail trail but it doesn't appear to be on anyone's plans - probably because the whole coal mine spur is kind of in the middle of nowhere (see below). 

In addition to these long tunnels, there are a few abandoned lines that offer opportunities for multiple tunnels.

At the top of this list is the Farimont Branch in WV. The 65 mile long railbed extends from the Monongahela River in Fairmont all the way to the Ohio River in Moundsville, and it passes through 5 old tunnels along the way, the longest of which is the 1250 foot long Welling tunnel. A couple of sections, in Hundred and Mannington have been turned into short trails (the East Wetzel and the John McCann Memorial respectively) but together they account for less than 4 miles. There are plans to extend the McCann east, but not to build out the whole ROW, which is too bad since it would make a great addition to the Industrial Heartland Trail system. 

Another one is the the B&O railroad's Wheeling Pittsburgh Subdivision between Washington, PA and Wheeling, WV. The west end of this line is part of the previously mentioned Wheeling Heritage Trail, but the rest of the line would make a great extension passing through numerous towns along I-70. It has five tunnels on it, all in Pennsylvania, with the longest being the 1052 foot long Finney Tunnel.

There are some smaller ones too. The abandoned 17 mile long Bluefield Subdivision from Pocahontas to Weyanoke in WV has a pair of short tunnels just south of Rock.  There are a couple of other tunnels (Top Mill and Mt. Wood) in Wheeling that are planned additions to the Wheeling Heritage Trail. 

A little closer to DC, there are three long tunnels that were to once be part of the Western Maryland Rail Trail (the Kessler, Stickpile and 4350 foot long Indigo) but they were  closed by the NPS so that they could be bat habitat instead.  But, the much shorter (~100ft) long Pleasant Plains Road Tunnel will be part of that trail's phase IV which is currently underway.  

In the immediate area, trail users might someday ride through a replacement for the Air Rights Tunnel along the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda and through the Union Market tunnel under New York Avenue in DC.  The first is very likely, the second, very unlikely. 

Comments

[John A.]

This is an outstanding survey of potential trail tunnels in the region. Of those listed, the three abandoned tunnels in Western Maryland have (or had) the most potential for trail use because they are already owned by the National Park Service and are a natural fit with the ongoing extension of the Western Maryland trail. Integration of the tunnels, combined with several nearby bridge crossings of the Potomac, into the trail would make this scenic area of Maryland and West Virginia a national and international destination for recreational tourism.

This makes the decision by NPS to bypass these three tunnels because of bat habitat particularly frustrating. While preservation of wildlife is a noble goal, only one (1) federally-endangered bat, a single Indiana Bat, was claimed to be found in the three tunnels. That is not enough to pose any threat to their survival as a species. The estimated population of the Indiana Bat is more than 500,000, most of which reside in Indiana and Missouri, with no significant numbers found in Maryland or West Virginia.

The Maryland DNR also found that another species, the Eastern small-footed bat, was at risk from the deadly White Nose Syndrome (WNS). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service later found that this finding was not supported by the evidence:

"While other species of hibernating bats have experienced mass mortality due to WNS, there is no indication of a population-level decline in eastern small-footed bat based on winter survey data. A review of pre-WNS and post-WNS hibernacula count data over multiple years finds that post-WNS counts were within the normal observed range at the majority of sites analyzed."

See 78 Fed. Reg. 61072, October 2, 2013.

The NPS therefore nixed the three tunnels based on a virtually non-existent threat to any local or national bat populations. Humans and bats can and do coexist in trail tunnels (e.g., Caprocks Canyon Trail (Texas), Historic Railroad Trail (Nevada) and the Elroy-Sparta Trail (Wisconsin)), with no adverse effects. Even assuming that human activity might disturb the winter hibernation, the WM tunnels could be closed in the winter similar to the Big Savage in Pennsylvania.

The NPS should revisit and reverse their misguided decision, made under the previous administration without any meaningful public input, to bypass these tunnels.

[DE]

These have been fun, thanks.

I would almost take exception that the Lough Tunnel is in the middle of nowhere. Elk City is there and it's got "City" right in the name! :)

I've spent a fair amount of time kayaking the Tygart in that area. Went into that little town once and they were having a festival of some sort and the place was jammed. I guess what I mean is, if you have things there for people to do, they will generally be used. And it's not far from I-79 and Route 50.

But with the shortage of funds we are now likely to see for the forseeable future, yeah, it's probably not going to be a priority.

[washcycle]

I'll admit to not knowing the area, but the rail line itself is a spur to an old coal mine and it doesn't pass through a town. The think about WV (and PA too) is that it has probably 1000 miles of abandoned railroad and only so much money (and there are diminishing returns to each new trail built for tourism/recreation) so they need to be picky. If I were running the show there, I'd limit myself to corridors that pass through a town for now - and just try to secure the rest for later. I think a lot of their rail corridors could be turned into hiking trails with little effort and then maybe upgraded later.

[Michael H.]

I was an extra on a sci-fi short film that was filmed in the Dupont Underground a couple years ago. December 2015, I think. "Moonshot" is now available on Amazon. You can watch it for free with ads. It's 21 minutes long.

Anyway, the first part was filmed in the Dupont Underground, before it had been cleaned up for the art galery project. Some of the old food stalls from the former food court were still there, along with a lot of discarded wood, knick-knacks and lots and lots of dust.

To move around from one shooting location to the other, some of the crew members would ride a bicycle through the very dark tunnels under Dupont Circle. I tried to take a photo of them riding the bike but it didn't turn out well because of the lack of lighting.

No bikes in the final movie that I'm aware of.

Of course the Dupont Underground still hasn't become a pedestrian/bike path. But at least for one day, people were (legally) riding bikes through the old trolley tunnels under Dupont Circle.

https://www.amazon.com/Moonshot-Luvia-Petersen/dp/B076VWDDNP

P.S. The movie stars Luvia Petersen. Sci-fi fans may recognize her as "Garza" from the Canadian sci-fi series "Continuum," which also aired on the Syfy Channel in the U.S.

[Michael H.]

*gallery