The Tunnel 

I was so happy to discover this exceptionally well produced documentary. I grew up in Greenwood, a community nearby. I remember, early one morning my father took my twin brother and me (we were just 5 or 6 at the time, and I believe it was about 1958) to Staunton where he loaded onto a train and left us there alone. Turns out, we were told, before the train departed, it was the last time that steam locomotive would run from Staunton to Charlottesville and Dad wanted us kids to experience the last of a bygone era. He got in his car and drove all the way to Charlottesville to pick us up. He arrived before we did. For years and throughout my adult life, I thought the train had gone through the old tunnel but, now that I've seen this documentary, it must have been the new one. My most memorable part of the journey was rolling through a small community, next to the track, about a mile or two from the tunnel toward Charlottesville, called New Town. It's still there today and I would not hesitate to say the original settlers must have been some of the negro slaves who built the 17 miles of railroad from the tunnel to Crozet. Our nanny named Adelaide and her husband Sam (I think their last name was Stone) lived in a little cabin up on a hill above the tracks. Every morning either my mother or or father would drive up a long dirt road from our farm, "Longhouse,"' which is still there and includes Misty Mountain Camp Resort to New Town to pick her up and bring her down to the farm. The day we rode the train she was out near the tracks, waving to us as we went by. That was one memory I have never forgotten. My brother and I loved Adelaide like a mother. The most recent memory I'll never forget of this tunnel was just last week. when I, still a runner at 71, ran through the tunnel. It was the morning after rain and all the waterfalls on the rocky Piedmont side were flowing. It was beautiful and spectacular.

I am still letting this little film sink in, what a gem of a find. Well done. The production was superb, and the actual history behind the tunnel got me tearing up in no time. Thank you for this. Call PBS and let this be aired. The entire country needs to watch this film. Well done, indeed.

I love this. We saved our tunnel here in Tunnel Hill Georgia. The preservation story is SO familiar with all the "brick walls" encountered on restoring the tunnel. We had IRISH workers and stonecutters, the NEW tunnel only 40 feet away , bought rights from CSX and had to drain water and build up the floor for public use. This is a historic tunnel also for this is the only tunnel on the old Western and Atlantic line where the " Great Locomotive Chase" came through. It's 1,477 feet long and was only of 1/4" of in the center when the two working parties met in the middle. So that's why I LOVE this story!! Thank you for posting it. I'm also a railroad nut and there's another reason I love this along side of my Irish ancestry.

The entry of the tunnel is so reminiscent of the St Louis Arch. Another gateway into another world. Great work on this video!

It got my attention when Mr. Heivly mentioned that his father was an O'Brien. So was my mom, and she was inordinately proud of her Irish heritage.

Thank you so much for preserving our state and national history. It makes me feel good to see restoration of history instead of all the destruction and hate for American monuments and landmarks that are taking place every were. You can't erase and change what is still here to see and feel.

What a beautiful story! You bring the people who worked and died there back to life. Well done! :-)

We have lots of disused railway tunnels here in the UK,some real long and some opened up as cycle paths.

Greetings from Glasgow, Scotland. Oh my goodness. What a wonderful little film. Thank you ALL for recognising the sheer hard work and sacrifice that went into building this tunnel. What an amazing project 😍

Beautifully written and recored window into history. We'll done, thank you.

RU-vid at 1 AM gives me the lore of the world I want to visit this place

A heartfelt and sensitive vision becomes an inspiring reality. Well done!

I really enjoyed this, I had no idea. So much history out there I am happy that this was not lost to nature.

A really well done documentary that deserves to be broadcast. Looking forward to walking the tunnel, and when I do, it will be with a greater appreciation for its construction and those who worked so hard in its creation. Thank you for this fine work.

What a great video! This really is a piece of history that should be shared with all our children!

Wonderful film, completely captured the atmosphere and harsh realities of that time.

Imagine the history of this tunnel if only tunnels could talk imagine the history they would be able to tell

GREAT Fiddler at the end! Beautiful version of the air "The Blackbird":)

This is why I love You tube, I can get to see places around the world, and never leave my seat. great days.

Great Documentary. We often take for granted the effort and the sacrifices of the men that built this country. Now, people take these things works for granted. But we need to remember these efforts and appreciate them.

Magnificent history indeed.

A beautiful tunnel. I visited this tunnel with my family today. A wonderful experience.

This is fabulous! Beautiful and full of information - and great music...

Those kids are just adorable, love it.

Mary Lyon was mentioned in this video. Is she from Massachusetts? Founder of Mt. Holyoke College? In my area we have the Hoosic Tunnel. Completed in 1877. Two hundred workers in the twenty four year construction. First practical use of nitro glycerin. The tunnel is 4-3/4 miles long. It’s still the gateway to the west for trains in the northeast. It has a ventilation shaft 12 feet in diameter and 1028 feet from tunnel floor to the mountains summit. A building houses a giant fan that pulls train exhaust out of the tunnel. It’s called central shaft. A building on top of the shaft caught fire during the construction. The burning Timbers and equipment fell on 13 men who were 600 feet of the way to the bottom and were killed. The shaft quickly filled with water and the bodies were not recovered for a year. Then the shaft was completed. Finally both ends of the tunnel met, the error was only 9/16 of an inch. Still revered as a great engineering feet. Check out the Hoosic Tunnel on RU-vid!

29:00 I love the Ghost foggy entrance 💀👀

We know our Irish Family history to 912 AD. Our family farm was established in 1847 in up state NY. A hard life that created hard working, hard playing people. We are part of Clan Kelly.

NOTHING IS MORE DEPRESSING THAN abandoning a Railroad tunnel that was created with so much effort...!

So proud of my Irish heritage!

Brilliant. Many Thanks...

A sadness is that unlike now they had no time or feeling to absorb the beauty of the area.

FABULOUS!

Awesome video. It brought tears in my eyes.

It amazes me how immigrants that came here long ago helped built this great nation of America. Each one with talents and expertise brought their knowledge from their own country in helping hands to make America a better place for all.

WOW.... Amazing what they went through and Did....😨😱😰😓

Incredible history

I am 30% Irish and glad to see this tunnel taken care of

great piece of history. thankyou

My fellow irish man ,the suffering irish ,all of our lives.

Hate to say this, as I am part of the group (one of my great grandfathers would not even admit he was Irish, said he was French Celt, ignore the brouge and accent, dark brown eyes and black hair), but another story of how rich Americans abused immigrants, Irish this time and for a while...at least this is being remembered for what it was, Thank you. I'll go visit when we are allowed to travel safely again.

My grandfather was C.Vanhorn an I can remember him tilling me store's about his father working on this tunnel !

Absolutely love this video!

Watched from beginning to end, totally engrossed. Wonder if our ancestors could have played a role in its construction.

Old song we sung back in grade school, Drill ye terriers drill Drill ye terriers Drill, For its work all day For The sugar in your tay, Drill ye terriers Drill.

That tunnel was already there. And this is a story of digging it out.

Both the Irush contributions need to be acknowledged, and the contributions (almost the whole workforce over the Sierra's ), of the Chinese Immigrants and other Oriental immigrants. There was so much work, and also, so much danger. Many Chinese died. They were brought over, fully paid by by the Transcontinental railroad. They were paid, but kept very poor via charges for clothing, food, etc..Though many of them had been promised fare between their continents both ways, this did not happen. Therefore, California has a large Oriental population. These folks have made great contributions to the United States, as I'm sure many of the Irish have also.

to cool ,capital money well spent to restore history I see it as art thank you

Thanks for sharing X

Very cool ..I want to see this tunnel..

Great they saved the tunnel..maybe they should put some lights in the tunnel

Will be interesting to find out how this is portrayed in local public schools.

What is the update of the project being done? It's 2022 now. I have never heard of this story til now.

Great documentary and kudos to all for their efforts to open the tunnel for public participation and a well deserved monument to the men who suffered and died to build it. But, half way through the documentary the fiddle playing in the background was really getting grating. It's such an interesting subject and I watched the documentary through to the end but I was so glad to see and hear the young girl play the last darn note on that bloody fiddle.

That was brilliant.

RU-vid and the internet are the 8th wonder of Humanity.

The narrator reminds me of the lady who did the computer voice in Star Trek TNG.

Any chance that this will be made part of the National Park System sometime in the future?

0:30 ♫ Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River. ♫

WOW what a Great video!! :-) Peace

Original method whereby blasting holes were bored into rock were dangerous (to say the least). Large handled plier -- like tools could have easily been created to turn the drill bits instead of being hand-held. Sometimes I wonder where the brains of people were, especially those in position of 'foremen''. When the loss of life and limb becomes secondary in any construction project---it's time to make those in power, responsible, or even made to perform the dangerous work they require others to perform.

What camera's did you you shoot this on? Lights used? How long was the editing process? How long did it take build your pre-production? How how long did it take from start to finish?

Wow,..Just Wow!!!!..

A perfect lair for several generations of Sasquatches!

From one hell to another.

Great documentary. What happened to the tunnel during the Civil War?

Remember what he said about immigrants, it applies to immigrants these days as well. We need them

The English caused the Irish to suffer during the potato famine. They could have fed the Irish. Hate, Love are two of man's most hardest feelings. Hate takes over much of the time. Race causes problems. God created only one race, the HUMAN race. Man created races through Hate. 🐻

Sweet though long felt like

My Mother’s maiden name was Daugthery. We are related.

Almost heaven, west Virginia

Thank you to music school

Seemingly slaves were too expensive as their owners needed to be compensated if the slave was killed. Life of the Irish men had no value and they had to work for anything. So how does that differs from enslavement? I think this is what made America great. The brutal exploiting of Immigrants. And i think this is still happen as Mexicans working on the farms, just like the slaves before. For wages you can't live from, with almost no access to medicine, education or other social achievements. Time not really change.

Someone should've told them Irish about all that white privilege they had.

what is the woman narrator's accent? is this a very educated US accent ?... never heard one so light ...

lol "you didnt build that" right?

Big foot use these tunnels

The dispensability of the Irish workers struck a chord. When slaves were too expensive to risk losing, they turned back to replacing loses with more Irish, who were no doubt waiting in line for the next job opening. No one was demanding compensation from across the sea for lost sons and fathers. Here in western Canada, it was Chinese workers pushing the rails through the mountains, with similar fatalities and injuries. All those worked so hard out of desperation deserve recognition, but get little.

Exceptional photography throughout this documentary. Photos may only be paper representations, but these photos captured the essence of the tunnel and its surroundings. Great design and brickwork around the openings - nothing like this in modern day construction.

Beautiful Documentary, thanks to all who worked on it. Truly an amazing story.

I clicked on this thinking it might be a short movie, but it is so much better than that. So well produced, that it really draws one into what the times were like, and the conditions that the Irish worked under. So well balanced and animated by input from the local Irish societies, it is inspiring that this re-opening project was undertaken. Thank you!

Amazing how the disease of the humble potatoes , the potato blight in Ireland over several years caused the hardship and mass migration around the world. The Irish took their skills and changed the face of all the continents they went to. With no crop failure the world might look different.

Beautiful thanks! A true magical experience and wonderful project in hopes of educating a generation of young Americans to their awesome Irish heritage!

Great to see them trying to preserve this, so much industrial and civil engineering heritage has been lost.

The attentiveness of the students is fantastic.

Excellent documentary well told. When you think of the technology and equipment we have today compared to what they had. The tunnel an amazing achievement. A lot of blood sweat tears and death went to make it so. The conditions they encountered must have been horrendous but this was nothing to the land the left behind. A land of poverty sickness death and hopelessness 😭😭.

America NEEDS to invest in it's History. Or we lose our identity. I'm Irish from the O'Connor and my children are Boyne. I'm also MacCrae from Scotland and Eilian Donnan. I love love love these stories.

Great job! So glad the film is out.

What a wonderful documentary. I am 81yrs and will never get to see this live. Very fun to experience even on video.

This country owes much to the Irish and Africans, not to mention the Native Americans who were here before us all..

Amazing story! Would love to see it some day. Used to drive this way for years visiting my daughter in Virginia and never knew it existed!

Amazing that they could align the two halves of the tunnel so accurately with the technology of the era.

Those kids dancing in the tunnel, that made me cry, tears of sadness, tears of joy.

We use to go up there and party when I was in High School

We just visited the tunnel and looked up the documentary after coming back home. How awesome it is to go in it and then hear the story!

6:19 Photography skills: Next level.

Beautiful documentary on a forgotten piece of history.

Wow, clicked on this to watch for a few minutes.....next thing I realize is that the video is over and it has been 35 minutes. Great story.

Sad part is it took longer for them to reopen the tunnel then it took to build it in the first place

Amazing job, well done to all involved. great to see such an important part of history preserved.

The Irish ☘️ never had anything given to them. Mostly taken !!