Church Hill Tunnel
Historical highway marker SA-90 · Richmond City
About 200 feet east is the western portal of the Church Hill Tunnel. On 11 Dec. 1873, Chesapeake and Ohio locomotive number 2 passed through the tunnel, marking the completion of one of the longest tunnels in the United States. The tunnel was being repaired on 2 Oct. 1925, when Chesapeake and Ohio locomotive number 231 entered the tunnel heading west, pulling ten flat cars. The train was near the western portal when suddenly 190 feet of the tunnel collapsed, trapping and killing railroad workers, some of whom remain entombed in the tunnel along with the train.
Department of Historic Resources, 2011