A Southern yard engine with traffic from C&O Interchange emerges from the south end of the old Jefferson Street tunnel that has been bypassed. |
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Like a youngster getting too big for his clothes, Southern too finds that sometimes it has to "let out" its right of way. Cuts, underpasses and tunnels designed for yesterday's freight cars have to be enlarged or bypassed because today's freight cars have grown longer, higher and wider. --
A Southern yard engine with traffic from C&O Interchange emerges from the south end of the old Jefferson Street tunnel that has been bypassed. |
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A case in point is Southern's Jefferson Street tunnel in Lynchburg, Va. The 256-foot tunnel dates back to 1873, when it was built by the Washington City, Virginia Midland and Great Southern Railway as part of a line extending from Lynchburg to Danville. A predecessor line of the WCVM&GS, the Orange and Alexandria, had reached Lynchburg in 1860. The rails were extended from Charlottesville across the James River into Lynchburg. These lines all became part of Southern Railway in 1894 when the Company was organized.
With the track removed and the tunnel paved over, this is the way Jefferson Street looks today. |
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In the early 1920s, Southern's main line through Lynchburg was rerouted to a more westerly location, but the Jefferson Street line continued to serve local industry. As freight cars became bigger, however, they outgrew the dimensions of the Jefferson Street tunnel and roundabout reroutings had to be worked out to get them around the tunnel.
For 97 years engineers saw this view of the north end of the tunnel. Besides the narrow tunnel dimensions, a slight "S" curve in the tracks caused problems for long freight cars. |
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Deciding to bypass the problem Southern relocated about 3 1/2 city blocks of its track, shifting it several hundred feet to the east of Jefferson Street and next to the C&O/B&O tracks on the bank of the James River.
Here's the way the north end of the tunnel looks today. The bypass line swings to the left, the tunnel is sealed, and the old tracks are removed. |
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The first Southern freight rolled over the new bypass on November 3, 1970 ending 97 years of service for the Jefferson Street line and tunnel. Since then, the tracks have been taken up along the street and through the tunnel, and both ends of the tunnel have been sealed, with the south end (Jefferson Street) paved over. The familiar scene of trains entering and emerging from the tunnel has now passed into history.