The tunnel was number one proposed in 1835 by residents of Charleston, South Carolina as a new & shorter route for the Blue Ridge Railroad between Charleston together with 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. It was mentioned on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. a tunnel, along with nearby Issaqueena Falls, are now a Walhalla city park. Thomas Wyche, pledged about $2 million to protect the surrounding property and a consortium of non-profit conservation groups, private individuals, and the state of South Carolina provided the money and resources to preserve the mountain for public use.Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel in Oconee County, South Carolina is an incomplete railroad tunnel for a Blue Ridge Railroad of South Carolina in Sumter National Forest. In 1999 this vent was impacted by a rock slide, however in 2000 the town of Walhalla re-excavated the tunnel and safely returned it to public use.Īfter a developer attempted to purchase the property from the City of Walhalla in 2007, Naturaland Trust, a conservation agency created by C.
The structural integrity of the tunnel is solid and almost no cracking is apparent minus an enlarged vent halfway through the tunnel. The tunnel is easily accessible by foot, a few yards from a gravel parking lot. Inside the tunnel the temperature is a constant 50 degrees with humidity of 85%. It is open daily except Christmas Day and during inclement weather from 10am until 5pm. Today, Stumphouse tunnel is operated as a public park along with nearby Isaqueena Falls by the city of Walhalla. Beginning in the 1950s Stumphouse tunnel was used by Clemson University to grow blue cheese until the 1970s when the blue cheese operation was relocated to air-conditioned cheese ripening rooms where the tunnel environment was duplicated. Only the entrance to the tunnel is visible. Saddle is partially completed yet is mostly submerged by a small lake. Saddle Tunnel, the last of the South Carolina complex was also begun for a short distance 1.5 miles north of Middle Tunnel. Middle Tunnel, a quarter mile from Stumphouse Tunnel was successfully completed but mostly collapsed and was partially sealed off in the mid-1900s. As a part of the planned Blue Ridge Railroad, two other tunnels were begun in the 1850s and are all connected by terrain at railroad grade. Today, where the tunnel was meant to end on the other side of the mountain, there remains a mound of earth (intended for the railway tracks) submerged during the summer months under Crystal Lake, located just west of Highway 28.
The tunnel had been excavated to a length of 1,617 feet of the planned 5,863 total feet. By 1859, the State of SC had spent over a million dollars on the tunnel and refused to spend any more on the project, therefore the tunnel work was abandoned. Construction on Stumphouse tunnel began in 1856 when the George Collyer Company of London brought many Irish workers into the area for this project. Construction on the railway was begun in the late 1850s and was successful through most of South Carolina until hitting the mountains around Walhalla 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 1835 by residents of Charleston, SC 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. BELOW: There is a lot of history about the tunnel.īelow the history, there are photos inside and around the tunnel.
0 kommentar(er)
