The Deleted Scenes - Under the Street
Where am I, and what is this? Well, I’m not here—these are Google screenshots—though I’ve been here many times. But this must be obscure enough, or uninteresting enough, that I’d never heard of it, and it doesn’t show up on most lists of things to see in…Old Town Alexandria. And it’s a pedestrian/bike tunnel. But of course, it’s more than that. First of all, like a lot of stuff in Old Town, it’s old. This is not a piece of modern pedestrian-friendly infrastructure. It is a rail tunnel from the 1850s, part of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad which once ran through town, connecting the D.C. area with communities in Virginia along what is now U.S. 29 (Culpeper, Charlottesville, Lynchburg). Some articles also mention Richmond. Though the rail line doesn’t appear to have run through Richmond, it must have connected to one that did. You could get pretty much anywhere from anywhere at a certain point in America’s rail history. This railroad, and thus this tunnel, were important in both the Civil War and World War I. And then there was a lot of industry consolidation (which gives you a bit of a view into why so many of these enterprises didn’t make it):
And the same article also notes this: “The Wilkes Street track continued in operation until 1975 when declining industrial activity along the waterfront no longer warranted rail service. The tunnel is significant today as Alexandria’s only 19th century transportation site surviving intact.” It’s fascinating how long some of this stuff held on, isn’t it? 1975 America was a very different country, more so than someone my age can easily appreciate. And here is a photo of the inside of the tunnel (credit Wayne Thume/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0): It might not make it in the top tourist lists, but I sure want to go see it! Related Reading: What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #14 What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #17 What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #23 Thank you for reading! Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to help support this newsletter. You’ll get a weekly subscribers-only post, plus full access to the archive: over 500 posts and growing. And you’ll help ensure more material like this! You're currently a free subscriber to The Deleted Scenes. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
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