Voices from the Blue Ridge Tunnel

ACHS’s inspiring new educational interactive exhibit “Voices from the Blue Ridge Tunnel: When Men were Machines” shines a light on the compelling human story behind the Blue Ridge Tunnel construction – the historic railroad tunnel 700 feet under Afton Mountain. The tunnel that opened in 1858 for trains and reopened in 2021 (after two decades of cooperative restoration work) to walkers and bicyclists, was designed by French engineer Claudius Crozet, but it and the railroad were built by several thousand Irish immigrants and enslaved African Americans whose blood, sweat, and lives (at least 14 Irishmen and 3 slaves died during construction) turned Crozet’s idea into one of the greatest engineering feats in the world at that time. This exhibit is their story.

Using hand drills, picks, shovels, hammers, gunpowder and fuses, they opened up the mountain inch by inch, laid tracks, and otherwise worked to bring America’s newest transportation sensation—the railroad—into the southern Shenandoah Valley.

Visitors to the reception will also be inspired by the amazing art on display in the SAAC galleries. Throughout the month of August, SAAC has played host to a number of artists working in a variety of media as part of the center’s Arts in Practice Artists Residency that transformed the Smith Center’s art galleries into studio space for artists to create and work. The reception is an opportunity for the public to see the finished results and meet the artists. On view will be works created during the residency by artists Martin Geiger, The Dwell Collective, Sarah Jones, Joshua Yurges, Barbara Coyle Holt, Jill Kimbrough, Rob Mertens, Candace Christy, Noelia Nunez, Barbara Bernstein, Nicole O’Connor, Hsini Des, and Angus Carter.