Blue Ridge Tunnel (Crozet Tunnel)

The two crews met less than six inches off perfect alignment — boring from opposite ends through nearly a mile of solid granite, with hand drills and black powder, a decade before dynamite existed. Construction ran from 1850 to 1858 under French engineer Claudius Crozet; 189 people died during it, many in a cholera epidemic in 1854. When it opened, it was the longest railroad tunnel in the United States. Abandoned in 1944, donated by CSX to Nelson County in 2007, it reopened as a trail in late 2020. Bring a headlamp.