Natural Tunnel State Park - Video Tour
A video tour of the Natural Tunnel State Park in Duffield, Virginia.
Come along and experience what the 41st United States Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan called the Eighth Wonder of the World.
On this tour, you will see attractions such as: the Chair Lift, Lover’s Leap, Stock Creek, and the Natural Tunnel itself. Learn about the history and legends of the area and revel in the beauty of southwestern Virginia.
Natural Tunnel State Park
Natural Tunnel State Park is a Virginia state park, centered around the Natural Tunnel, a massive naturally-formed cave that is so large it is used as a railroad tunnel. It is located in the Appalachian Mountains near Duffield in Scott County, Virginia.
The Natural tunnel, which is up to 200 feet (61 m) wide and 80 feet (24 m) high[1], began to form more than a million years ago when groundwater bearing carbonic acid percolated through crevices and slowly dissolved limestone and dolomite bedrock. A small river, which is now called Stock Creek, was diverted underground and it continued to erode the tunnel over many millennia.
The walls of the tunnel show evidence of prehistoric life. Many fossils have been found in the creek bed and in the tunnel walls.
Although Natural Tunnel State Park was created in 1967 and opened to the public in 1971, the natural tunnel has been a Virginian tourist attraction for more than a century; Daniel Boone is believed to have been the first European to see it in the 18th century. The 41st United States Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan dubbed it the Eighth Wonder of the World.
A railroad was constructed through the natural tunnel in 1893. The first train, operated by the Virginia & Southwestern Railway Company, passed through the following year. In 1899, the Natural tunnel was purchased by the Tennessee & Carolina & Iron and Steel Company. The railway originally carried passenger trains; today, the line is still open but is only used to transport coal.
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Hiking Natural Tunnel State Park in Southwest Viriginia
Natural Tunnel State Park is a Virginia state park, centered on the Natural Tunnel, a massive naturally formed cave that is so large it is used as a railroad tunnel. It is located in the Appalachian Mountains near Duffield in Scott County, Virginia.
The Natural tunnel, which is up to 200 feet (61 m) wide and 80 feet (24 m) high,[1] began to form more than a million years ago when groundwater bearing carbonic acid percolated through crevices and slowly dissolved limestone and dolomite bedrock. A small river, which is now called Stock Creek, was diverted underground and it continued to erode the tunnel over many millennia.
The walls of the tunnel show evidence of prehistoric life. Many fossils have been found in the creek bed and in the tunnel walls.
The tunnel passes through Purchase Ridge, which is made of the Ordovician Chepultepec Limestone and is near the axis of the Purchase Ridge syncline. It lies between the Clinchport Thrust Fault and the Hunter Valley Thrust Fault, on the Hunter Valley Thrust Sheet The tunnel itself began its formation in the Pleistocene period.
It is known that a Cherokee maiden and a Shawnee brave who had been forbidden to marry by their respective tribes, jumped to their deaths from the highest pinnacle above the Natural Tunnel. The place is now known as Lover's Leap.
Although Natural Tunnel State Park was created in 1967 and opened to the public in 1971, the natural tunnel has been a Virginian tourist attraction for more than a century; Daniel Boone is believed to have been the first European to see it in the 18th century. The 41st United States Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan dubbed it the Eighth Wonder of the World.
A railroad was constructed through the natural tunnel in 1893. The first train, operated by the Virginia & Southwestern Railway Company, passed through the following year. In 1899, the Natural tunnel was purchased by the Tennessee & Carolina & Iron and Steel Company. The railway originally carried passenger trains; today, the line is still open but now run by Norfolk Southern and CSX and is only used to transport coal.
Natural Tunnel in Virginia
Hiking
Natural Tunnel State Park in Scott County, Virginia Without Any Trains
We waited at Natural Tunnel for 7.5 hours; however, we did not see any trains. Norfolk Southern's Andover-Moccasin Gap Line, MP 24T. Filmed August 2017 at Scott County, VA, USA, by Super Trains
Super Trains
Frontier Muster and Trade Faire: Language
Through a 2012-2014 community cultural development residency, a reenactment drama was created with Appalachian folk artists and local performers, and premiered at Natural Tunnel State Park in Duffield, Virginia. A group of Eastern Cherokee tradition-keepers are primary collaborators, and co-producers are the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association, a nonprofit volunteer organization in Tennessee and Virginia, and Natural Tunnel State Park of Duffield, Virginia.
NS AND CSX TRAINS AT NATURAL TUNNEL STATE PARK
NS AND CSX TRAINS AT NATURAL TUNNEL STATE PARK.THE PARK IS A PART OF THE VIRGINIA STATE PARK SYSTEM.THE PARK IS LOCATED IN SCOTT COUNTY VIRGINIA.FILMED BY ANTHONY RHOTON.FILMED ON JUNE 9,2009.CHECK OUT MY PHOTOS AT
The Tallest Mountain in Virginia
This year, I went on a trip throughout the Northeastern United States - all the way from North Carolina to Maine. I wanted to visit places I hadn't been to before - both typical highlights of the state as well as locations off the beaten path. I used AtlasObscura.com to help meet the latter condition.
Timestamps:
0:41 - Natural Tunnel State Park
3:07 - Emory & Henry College
4:15 - Grayson Highlands State Park
6:28 - Mt. Rogers (Highest Point in Virginia)
Beyond This - Dwell
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Aerial Scott County Virginia - Carter Family Fold
First portion of a project to do drone footage of various locations in Scott County Virginia. The Carter Family Fold is a venue for old time country and bluegrass music. The venue has visitors from all over the United States and the world. Shows are every Saturday evening year round. Parts of the area are a museum located in the old AP Carter store, a cabin that was the home of AP Carter and the music venue
The final product will add voice over audio tracks and GPS coordinates for locating the sites.
Copper Creek Trestles Trains and Surroundings Speers Ferry VA between Gate City and Duffield
Opening shots of the video show the setting, then there is a sharp angle view of a train on the high trestle high above, after that we cut to a siding a few miles away where an coal train of empties (not shown at that point ) waits for a full train which we see has been aided by helper locomotives, a short clip of the helper engines returning, then back to the trestle, for the final clips of that coal train of empties that had been waiting goes over the lower trestle, and a different train passes over the high trestle.
In Virginia along US highway 23 there is between Gate City, VA and Duffield, VA there is a scenic overlook that overlooks a pair of trestles, actually for much of the year only one high trestle that can be seen, as the lower trestle is blocked by trees that grow alongside the Clinch river. The trestles don’t span the Clinch river, they span the mouth of a valley through which Copper Creek runs (and therefore Copper Creek is spanned too). If the Clinch River sounds like a familiar name, perhaps it is because many folks have heard of the Clinchfield Railroad The following details are given on a “place of interest type of marker” at the overlook, which reads
The Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railway built the taller of the two structures which stand before you in 1908. At 167 feet over the Copper Creek-Clinch River junction, the Copper Creek Viaduct was then one of the tallest railroad bridges in the eastern United States. Construction of this trestle - and many other bridges and fifty-five tunnels - by the CC&O opened up coal deposits in Virginia and Kentucky via a superbly engineered direct rail route to numerous cities in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Prior to its completion, alternate rail routes to these markets were over one hundred miles longer and featured some of the steepest grades in the United States.
More than a century later this viaduct is still a vital link in the rail network of Clinchfield's successor company, CSX Transportation. An average of 18 to 24 coal trains currently pass daily over this bridge, keeping the lights on in such major cities as Charlotte, Columbia, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Charleston. Northbound coal empties are returning to the rich coal seams of Eastern Kentucky, Virginia, and Southern West Virginia. Additional trains carrying general merchandise, grain, plastics, lumber, chemicals, and aggregates also pass over this trestle.
The lower bridge was constructed by the South Atlantic & Ohio Railroad around 1890 and is currently owned by Norfolk Southern Corporation. Close to one hundred per cent of the business handled by Norfolk Southern consists of both empty and loaded coal cars to and from Virginia coal mines. Contractual agreements between CSX and Norfolk Southern, though they are competitors, allow each to use the other's tracks, so trains of both railroads can often be seen on either of the Copper Creek trestles.
Hell on steel wheels! The bucket lists ~~~
Description
Old CSX Train Tunnel
Old tunnel in eastern KY. Looks like it still sees some use but not much.
csx southbound at speers ferry virginia
csx southbound crossing the copper creek trestle the trestle is 167 feet high the line below is the norfolk southern mainline between bulls gap tennessee and andover virginia
My Fellow Americans
Hail to the Comedy Chiefs! Jack Lemmon and James Garner win a landslide of laughs as grumpy old ex-presidents on a perilous quest for evidence that will absolve them of a political scandal mastermined by the current president (Dan Aykroyd).