Under the Street
What Do You Think You're Looking At? #100
Where am I, and what is this?
Well, I’m not here—these are Google screenshots—though I’ve been here many times. But this must be obscure enough, or uninteresting enough, that I’d never heard of it, and it doesn’t show up on most lists of things to see in…Old Town Alexandria.
And it’s a pedestrian/bike tunnel.
But of course, it’s more than that.
First of all, like a lot of stuff in Old Town, it’s old. This is not a piece of modern pedestrian-friendly infrastructure. It is a rail tunnel from the 1850s, part of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad which once ran through town, connecting the D.C. area with communities in Virginia along what is now U.S. 29 (Culpeper, Charlottesville, Lynchburg).
Some articles also mention Richmond. Though the rail line doesn’t appear to have run through Richmond, it must have connected to one that did. You could get pretty much anywhere from anywhere at a certain point in America’s rail history.
This railroad, and thus this tunnel, were important in both the Civil War and World War I. And then there was a lot of industry consolidation (which gives you a bit of a view into why so many of these enterprises didn’t make it):
Shortly after the Civil War, the old Orange & Alexandria line was incorporated into the Washington City, Virginia Midland & Great Southern Railway controlled by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Wilkes Street Tunnel played a part in the rivalry between the Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroads for supremacy in the north-south trade across the Potomac River. The Pennsylvania Railroad acquired Congressional authorization for exclusive use of Long Bridge (14th Street). To maintain a competitive position, Baltimore & Ohio offered trans-Potomac service by way of carfloats linking Wilkes Street with Shepherd's Ferry on the Maryland shore until about 1906.
And the same article also notes this: “The Wilkes Street track continued in operation until 1975 when declining industrial activity along the waterfront no longer warranted rail service. The tunnel is significant today as Alexandria’s only 19th century transportation site surviving intact.”
It’s fascinating how long some of this stuff held on, isn’t it? 1975 America was a very different country, more so than someone my age can easily appreciate.
And here is a photo of the inside of the tunnel (credit Wayne Thume/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0):
It might not make it in the top tourist lists, but I sure want to go see it!
Related Reading:
What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #14
What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #17
What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #23
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The Virginia Room at one of the city's libraries has black & white images of the last train to go down Wilkes Street. I believe it was 1974.
That's cool! I'm surprised they left it open given it really doesn't serve much of a transportation function, as it would if it went under a STROAD, highway or other obstacle that's not traversable easily walking or by bike. My guess is if there were a huge maintenance bill due they would abandon it, unless it now has some historical significance other than nostalgia for old rail fans.