The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster was a large-scale incident of occupational lung disease in the 1930s as the result of the construction of the Hawks Nest Tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, as part of a hydroelectric project. This project is considered to be one of the worst industrial disasters in American history.

Gauley Bridge is a town in Fayette County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 614 at the 2010 census. The Kanawha River is formed at Gauley Bridge by the confluence of the New and Gauley Rivers. Two miles to the southwest of Gauley Bridge, in Glen Ferris, is Kanawha Falls, a popular stopping point on Midland Trail Scenic Highway.