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 district of Richmond, Virginia, United States. On October 2, 1925, the tunnel collapsed on a work train, killing four men and trapping a steam locomotive and ten flat cars. Rescue efforts only resulted in further collapse, and the tunnel was eventually sealed for safety reasons.
The sealed western portal to the Church Hill Tunnel
The eastern entrance to the Church Hill Tunnel showing the collapsed roof at top.
The east entrance to the tunnel in 2010.
Looking northwest into the tunnels east entrance in 2010. The floor is under several inches of water. The tunnel is sealed off by a wall some distance in from the entrance, barely visible in this photo.
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. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond to the Ohio River by 1873, where the railroad town of Huntington, West Virginia, was named for him.
The original Blue Ridge Tunnel built by the Blue Ridge Railroad and used by the C&O until its replacement during World War II
Coal cars at the Danville, West Virginia, yard in 1974
Postcard showing the Chesapeake and Ohio Terminal in Newport News, c. 1930–1945
The Chesapeake and Ohio's Sportsman at Alexandria, VA in August 1964.
