This is the Tennessee portal, and you can see the viaduct approach to the tunnel. Photo by H. Elkins, offered to my website in November I followed this project since it started in This is not a high-priority Interstate highway, but is an rural arterial highway corridor that is being progressively upgraded to four-lane arterial standards with town bypasses.
I have never been to the Cumberland Gap area; as much as I would like to, it is miles from Richmond, and it is not on the route of any other destination of mine. The tunnel's east portal is in Tennessee, and the west portal is in Kentucky.
The tunnel is 4, feet long with Kentucky having the longer portion. According to the USGS map of the tunnel area, the tunnel does not pass through or under any part of Virginia, but comes within about 1, feet of the Virginia geographical feature known as Virginia Corner.
Virginia Corner is the westernmost tip of Virginia. It is highway miles from Chincoteague, the farthest place in Virginia from Cumberland Gap. The tunnel is very important to Virginia, however, in that it replaces the section of USE that passed through the tip of Virginia.
The Cumberland Gap highway has always been a key link in Virginia's highway system, as well as those of Tennessee and Kentucky. A major purpose of the tunnel project, was to replace the sections of USE and US in the Cumberland Gap area, so that those highway sections in the Gap could be demolished and obscured and the ground be restored to the original wilderness path. The tunnel project also provided a needed modern 4-lane highway through the area. A Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper article, October 13, , had this quote blue text : Seventeen years in the making, the Cumberland Gap tunnel project has spurred highway expansion in three states, hopes for tourism in small communities near the Gap, and dreams of restoring the wilderness trail that Daniel Boone blazed in the s.
The tunnel is "the most significant thing that has happened there since Daniel Boone began to bring settlers through the Gap," said U.
Hal Rogers, whose district includes parts of southeastern Kentucky. Numerous underground streams were a major challenge as well. Although Congress initially appropriated money for the project in , the battle to improve the deadly U.
Route 25E crossing, dragged on for two decades. An annual vote was taken on whether to continue paying for the design and construction of highway projects. At the urging of U. Representative Hal Rogers, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, the Cumberland Gap Tunnel project eventually became part of a highway budget that did not require annual reauthorization. On June 21, , construction began on the actual Cumberland Gap Tunnel project with the blasting of the northbound tunnel.
This was one of the most important and expensive public works projects that was ever carried out in the state of Kentucky, as it replaced a narrow, deadly and winding road through the historic Cumberland Gap.
By the time construction began, the two-lane route over the Gap was carrying twice as much traffic as it was designed to handle; and it had an accident rate six times higher than on similar federal highways. On July 9, , the two sides of the tunnel met in precise alignment in the center. On October 18, , a ceremony involving officials from Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee celebrated the opening of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel.
Seventeen years in the making, the Cumberland Gap tunnel project has spurred highway expansion in three states, hopes for tourism in small communities near the Gap, and dreams of restoring the wilderness trail that Daniel Boone blazed in the s. The tunnel is "the most significant thing that has happened there since Daniel Boone began to bring settlers through the Gap. Appalachian Wireless Sports Overtime. Meet the Team. Contact Us. Careers at WYMT. Support Local.
Submit Photos and Videos. Gray DC Bureau. Investigate TV. KY Gives. The Cumberland Gap, which measures 1, feet in altitude, is Nature's passage through the Cumberland Mountains between Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. One of three natural breaks in the rugged Appalachian Mountain range, it served as a gateway in prehistoric times, when Native Americans used it as a footpath and buffalo used it to seek greener pastures.
In , Dr. Thomas Walker, an English naturalist and scientist, led a small party of explorers to the Gap after hearing Native American descriptions of the pathway through, rather than over the mountains.
In , Daniel Boone explored the area and in he blazed the mile trail known as Boone's Path or Boone's Road. If the journey was not treacherous enough, there was also the occasional massacre by renegade natives. During the summer and fall of , more than travelers were killed on the Kentucky side of the gap. Like the ill-fated Donner Party, travelers had to abandon wagons full of household necessities in bad weather to travel the narrow gap by foot or horse.
By it was known as the Wilderness Road having seen as many as , travelers, including Abraham Lincoln's parents and grandparents as they emigrated west.
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