By 1859, the State of South Carolina had spent over a million dollars on the tunnel and refused to spend any more on the project, therefore the tunnel work was abandoned. Many of the workers lived in housing on top of Stumphouse mountain called Tunnel Hill. Ĭonstruction on Stumphouse tunnel began in 1856 when the George Collyer Company of London brought many Irish workers into the area for this project. There Stumphouse tunnel along with three other tunnels was to be built. Construction on the railway was begun in the late 1850's and was successful through most of South Carolina until hitting the mountains around Wallhalla in Oconee County. In 1852, 13 miles of tunnel were proposed to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains through South Carolina, North Carolina, and into Tennessee. The tunnel was first proposed in 1837 by residents of Charleston, South Carolina as a new and shorter route for the Blue Ridge Railroad between Charleston and the Ohio river valley area which until then was only accessible by bypassing the mountains entirely to the South and then traveling up north through Georgia and middle Tennessee. All that’s left today are some crumbling foundations and burial spots.The following information is from: ( visit link) It typical boom town fashion, everything was built fast and cheaply, and not maintained. It also had a post office, church, school, stores, and a saloon. Located above the second shaft, this town of 1200 not only had bunkhouse living quarters but smaller single family homes for married workers. The mostly Irish workers lived in a hastily built community called Tunnel Hill. This way they could synchronize work on no less than 10 faces of the tunnel. Four shafts where dug from the top of the mountain, so that workers could be lowered down to begin work on the interior sections. They wanted the railway built fast and were willing to cut corners and be creative in their thinking. In order to speed up construction, it was to be built simultaneously in sections, but planners weren’t satisfied with only working on the two ends of the tunnel at the same time. Not only would it have been the longest tunnel built in the US at the time at over 5500 feet long, but unlike the nearby Middle Tunnel, it had to be cut through solid granite. Had it been completed, Stumphouse Tunnel would have been a marvel of 19 th Century construction. Of these tunnels, the one to be cut through Stumphouse Mountain was the most ambitious. Designers quickly realized that three tunnels would be needed to traverse this mountainous area. Construction progressed rapidly through most of the state until workers hit the mountains of Oconee County, South Carolina. Be sure to bring flashlights – the tunnel is really dark at the fat end and there aren’t any lights.Īfter several delays, work on the rail line finally began on the 1850’s. The entrance to Stumphouse Tunnel hand cut into the side of the mountain. They hoped, that with modern construction techniques, they could provide a direct route from the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to ports in Charleston, Wilmington, and Savannah. Their ambitious plan was to build the Blue Ridge Railroad, a rail line that would cut through the mountains in north western South Carolina. Merchants in Charleston, SC who relied on this flow of goods came up with a solution. An Ambitious Plan To Tunnel Through Stumphouse Mountain A faster more direct route was badly needed in order to support the fast growing region. That meant traveling by rail through Georgia in order to reach Charleston. In the early 19 th Century, the only practical way to get goods from the Ohio River Valley to ports along the coast was to completely bypass the Appalachian Mountains. Looking down the Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel in Walhalla, South Carolina, the centerpiece of Stumphouse Mountain Park.īefore the modern Interstate System was built, travel from the Midwest to the Atlantic seaboard was a long and demanding affair.
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