CHURCH HILL TRAIN-WRECKGroup “The Choo-Choo$ “

History Church hill is consid-

ered the oldest neigh-borhood in Richmond which overlooks downtown Richmond, and Shockoe Bottom

Richmond was char-tered and considered a town in 1742

Richmond was deemed capital of Vir-ginia in 1781

Under command of Benedict Arnold the city of Richmond was burned by British troops

The first steam locomo-tive service to the city began with the Rich-mond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad in 1836

In 1838 the Medical Col-lege of Virginia was created in Richmond

Historic District of Richmond VA

Union HillChimborazoFairmontPeter PaulWoodville

Location of St. John’s Episcopal Church

The site where Patrick Henry gave his speech “Give me Liberty or give me Death”

Speech was given on March 23, 1775 he presented Virginia’s resolutions

“"into a posture of defense, embodying, arm-ing, and disciplining such a number of men may be sufficient for that purpose."

After these Resolutions were stated votes were taken and passed by a small margin join-ing Virginia into the American Revolution

Pop Quiz

Where did Patrick Henry have his famous speech?1. Monroe Park

2. Maymont park

4. St. Paul’s Baptist Church

3. St. John’s Episcopal Church

Church Hill Tunnel Built in 1873 Built by the City of Richmond, VA and the

Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railway Co. to connect the central city to the riverfront.

Church Hill Tunnel

In 1925 the tunnel needed to be widened to accommodate larger trains

The C&O hired about 200 day laborers to clean and widen the tunnel on Octo-ber 2, 1925

Church Hill Tunnel

The tunnel collapsed in 1925

Current status of Church Hill Train Tunnel

Today the Tunnel is owned by CSX Trans-portation and still considered dangerous.

Although this tunnel is sealed and it is still said to be unsafe

The soil where the tunnel was located would expand when it was wet and contract when it was dry and was the cause of Cave-ins in the tunnel

Due to this factor it caused this water issues with the ground and tunnel creating safety issues, even after the collapse in 1925.

Pictures of Current status of Church Hill Train TunnelEast side of tunnel West side of tunnel

Pictures of Current status of Church Hill Train Tunnel

Pop Quiz

What year was Church Hill Tunnel built?1. 1887

2. 1825

4. 1873

3. 1925

Pop Quiz

True or False

TRUE / FALSE

Church Hill Tunnel was built by the City of Richmond, VA and the Chesa-peake and Ohio (C&O) Railway Co. to connect the central city to the river-front.

Pop Quiz

How many workers died from this ac-cident?1. 3 or 4 workers

2. 30-40 workers

4. Couple hundreds3. 7 or 8 workers

Trying to excavate locomotive 231 Pete Clausman,

chairman and CEO of Gulf and Ohio railway, an-nounced his inten-tion to excavate the train buried in the Church Hill tunnel

Dr. Charles F. Bryan, Jr., our pres-ident and CEO of Virginia Historical Society, hopes and wants the train to be dug up from the ground and to be-come part of the collections

Richmond Urban legends The collapse of the

Church hill tunnel in 1925 is the cause of several city legends

This tunnel col-lapse has created stories that the train was carrying many passengers who are still buried below Jefferson Park

The end….

Class is overYou guys are

free to go