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Photo: Eli Christman from Richmond, VA, USA, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
On Friday, October 2, 1925, a 4,000-foot Chesapeake and Ohio railroad single track tunnel built during Reconstruction collapsed under Church Hill. The Church Hill Tunnel collapse occurred during refurbishment works, killing 4 and engulfing a work train. The tunnel was closed and filled-in after the collapse. The bricked-in entrance of the collapsed tunnel can still be seen at the south east end of the alley just north of Marshall Street, on 18th Street. The work train remains sealed inside the tunnel, along with the bodies of 2 workers that were never recovered.
Church Hill Tunnel is an old Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) tunnel, built in the early 1870s, which extends approximately 4,000 feet under the Church Hill district of Richmond, Virginia, United States. On October 2, 1925, the tunnel collapsed on a work train, killing four men and trapping a steam locomotive and ten flat cars. Rescue efforts only resulted in further collapse, and the tunnel was eventually sealed for safety reasons.
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The Eric Schindler Gallery has monthly shows of local and regional artists.
Church Hill is known as the site of Virginia's second revolutionary convention where Patrick Henry gave his "Give me liberty or give me death" speech in St. John's Episcopal Church.