14. Rockfish Gap

Less than a mile below where Route 76 intersects with the Blue Ridge Parkway at Rockfish Gap, a new rails-to-trails pathway allows visitors to walk or ride through a tunnel carved for almost a mile, from one side of the ridge to the other. The Blue Ridge Tunnel, built in the nineteenth century, was described when it opened as “one of the wonders of the age.” After remaining inactive as a railway tunnel for several decades, it was converted into a pathway for use by visitors seeking a new perspective on the Blue Ridge mountains. This history, from innovative engineering, to decommissioning due to other technological changes, to conversion to a new purpose, is the focus of this episode, which asks what the lessons of the Blue Ridge Tunnel suggest about the long term trajectory of other major infrastructure projects in America’s past, present, and future. The episode is connected to Rockfish Gap, located just over 230 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and just under 220 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia.