Rating:
9 votes

Western & Atlantic Tunnel

Whitfield County, Georgia

Photos 

West portal

Photo taken by Eddie Douthitt in December 2008

Enlarge

BH Photo #130903

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Tunnel under Chetoogeta Mountain on abandoned alignment of the Western & Atlantic, later Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad in Tunnel Hill
Location
Tunnel Hill, Whitfield County, Georgia
Status
Open to pedestrians per museum schedule
History
Excavation started in 1848, first train of cars passed through 1850, The Great Locomotive Chase passed through April 12th 1862 during the Civil War, abandoned 1928 when new tunnel was built just to the north, refurbished 1990's, reopened 2000
Railroads
- Louisville & Nashville Railroad (LN)
- Western & Atlantic Railroad (W&A)
Design
Stone and brick masonry tunnel
Dimensions
Total length: 1,477.0 ft.
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places
Also called
Old Chetoogeta Mountain Tunnel
Approximate latitude, longitude
+34.83869, -85.03328   (decimal degrees)
34°50'19" N, 85°01'60" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/679830/3856918 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Tunnel Hill
Inventory number
BH 38423 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

19th Century (7,956)
Built 1850 (88)
Built during 1850s (447)
Georgia (648)
Louisville & Nashville Railroad (288)
NR-listed (3,000)
Open to pedestrians (4,422)
 Owned by city (5,829)
Railroad (16,165)
Total length 1000-2500 feet (1,938)
Tunnel (1,342)
Tunnel Hill, Georgia (2)
Western & Atlantic Railroad (1)
Whitfield County, Georgia (31)

Update Log 

  • March 17, 2012: New photo from Bob Davis
  • January 11, 2009: New photos from Eddie Douthitt
  • January 3, 2009: Updated by Eddie Douthitt
  • January 1, 2009: New photos from Eddie Douthitt
  • December 27, 2008: Updated by Eddie Douthitt
  • December 25, 2008: New photo from Eddie Douthitt
  • December 24, 2008: New photos from Eddie Douthitt
  • December 23, 2008: Added by Eddie Douthitt

Sources 

  • Eddie Douthitt - dalton1861 [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Tunnel Hill Heritage Center - Local museum with info about the tunnel
  • Bob Davis - bobdaviscfi [at] earthlink [dot] net
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Comments 

Western & Atlantic Tunnel
Posted January 11, 2010, by Mary (harriet2577 [at] yahoo [dot] com)

I'm so glad you got some pics of the tunnel before they put all that tourist stuff in there.....I liked it much better the way I remember it when we first toured it together in 2001.

Your other bridges are so cool.....I wish you could have seen Jones Bridge and Snapp Bridge before the floods took them both - both were those old iron truss bridges with the metal slats between the concrets slabs on the decks that made such horrible noise and scared little children when you crossed!