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Sunday, July 21, 2024

Of Tunnels and Bridges



The above photo was taken a few years ago when I was researching the story of a haunted railroad tunnel (Silver Run tunnel on the North Bend Rail Trail). I came across this picture today, and thought I would do a post of some of the  photos I have taken of tunnels and bridges. Apparently I have a fascination with them,  for I found many in my folders. 

Portal to the Silver Run tunnel.

Below is Dingess tunnel in Mingo County, WV. 

From the Bridges and Tunnels website.

It is about a mile long and still in use as a local road. It is only one lane wide. There are traffic lights on each end to keep people from meeting in the middle, but the night we went through  (a story in itself) the lights had been shot out, and sure enough we met someone in the middle. He backed up, a whole 1/2 mile.


Next is the Great Bend tunnel, right next to the Big Bend tunnel of John Henry fame. This is in Southern West Virginia but I can't remember the county now. Maybe Mercer? When I visited this one it was misting rain, and someone was pounding on steel-- turned out to be a guy at a trailer hidden behind trees, trying to get a tire off a wheel rim. 


And the man himself, a beautiful metal sculpture that has been moved to be beside the tunnels. The area is now a park, and there is an annual John Henry Festival every summer.


A covered bridge here in my county, this one was on the mail route I worked as a sub in the early 80s. It was a great place to stop and eat lunch.  Literally no traffic most days. 


Another in Greenbrier County, the Hern Bridge, not too far from the famous resort.


The two-lane covered bridge in Philippi, WV. 


I cannot remember where we were when I took this, but apparently we were under a railroad trestle.


My favorite footbridge, which crosses the North Fork of the Cherry River in Nicholas County.



This is a drivable bridge, crossing over to Middle Island Creek Nature Preserve in St. Mary's, WV. The island is quite a few miles long, and a good place for bird watching or just enjoying the green quiet. 


Looking down from a bridge over the mighty New River, near Fall's View, WV.


Larry's favorite footbridge is this one over the Big Coal River, one he crossed many times as a boy. One side is Kanawha County, the other side is Boone County.


Located in Wirt County. I wanted to walk across but there was a No Trespassing sign, so I did not.


A dear, departed bridge, this old steel structure is the one I used to cross to get to my friend Kirk's camp,  where we poets gather. We were all so sad when the bridge was replaced by a bland concrete structure. Fondly remembered as "the blue bridge".


11 comments:

  1. ...is there really light at the end?

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  2. Great collection of points of transfer from one side to another...either above water or through mountains! What an interesting marriage of diverse ideas, but they fit together perfectly!

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  3. Lovely bridges...I like alleys, ways through, gulleys.....

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  4. Hinton, WV (Summers County). What a wonderful collection of tunnels and bridges. I like the old steel girder bridges. They show their age, don't they? We have one called the Nebraska Bridge in Tionesta, best known for some pretty dramatic flooding when the ice breaks up in the spring. You can google the name for 'flood pictures'.

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  5. Delightful post!!! I so enjoyed The Night we went Through 💗
    (but I'm so glad I wasn't the one driving through that tunnel).

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  6. Especially tunnels freak me out. I know too much about fire in them... Of course we need to be thankful for their existence, but I am always very happy when I am out. And then haunted, ohhhhh.... heeeelp!

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  7. Did you think - just for a split second - that the sound of invisible hammer on invisible steel might be the ghost of John Henry? ;)

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  8. I have been to several of these places, but you have highlighted others I want to visit when I get back to WV. I am intrigued by the Middle Island Nature Center in St. Marys. I've never heard of that one before.

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  9. Great, interesting photo subjects.

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  10. I love this. I, too, am attracted to photographing tunnels, bridges and arches, especially when travelling. I am now going to have a nagging suspicion that I also have several of your Virginia photos and will end up pulling up my album of all three trips on the Blue Ridge Parkway and environs to check. Sigh. Meanwhile I have very much enjoyed your post. I have one, just one, beyond yours. A tunnel into our government's 1960's bomb shelter for the PM and etc. Now a museum. If I can find it, I will post.

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  11. Yes, John Henry is in Summers county. that's very close to where I grew up in Monroe county.
    When my son was in elementary school, they had to do a first person presentation of a historical figure. He chose John Henry. It was fun for him because being in Arkansas, no one really knew much about him.

    My favorite covered bridge is in Monroe county, the Indian Creek covered bridge just south of Union. I think it's such a beautiful spot. Much of my family is buried in the cemetery across the road at the St John church. We used to have family picnics in the church yard when we would go to clean off the graves every summer. And we kids loved playing on the bridge. It was never open to traffic in my lifetime.

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