The Way I See It: A 244-foot train tunnel hides under Interstate 77
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If you follow the Marietta River Trail all the way to the eastern end near Aldi, you will pass two relics of the area's past when you travel past the Interstate 77 Bridge.
The first thing you may notice is under the bridge on the end of the earthen approach to the bridge. Dozens of grindstones were used when the bridge was constructed to hold the dirt in place.
Grindstones, which were used by industries all over the world, were quarried and prepared by industries west of Marietta for 125 years. When the companies shut down in the 1960s, the stones that were left were used for a variety of uses, including on the Interstate 77 bridge.
After passing the bridge, the River Trail makes a left turn and heads north between Duck Creek and the interstate.
Look to your left and you will see Marietta's only railroad tunnel. For 60 years the tunnel has been hiding in the open as thousands of cars and trucks travel overhead every day.
The railroad tunnel has never had a single train pass through it.
The Penn Central Railroad once had plans to expand operations up the Ohio River to meet a line heading southwest at Sardis. The railroad already had a line heading south from Cambridge that followed the Duck Creek Valley. Those tracks ran near Greene Street before passing through Marietta College and connecting with the Baltimore and Ohio tracks near Second and Butler streets.
The proposed connection between Marietta and Sardis would have served Ohio customers and connected with the rest up the line that ran up the eastern edge of the state. Some work had been done on the expansion, including land purchases and some work to prepare the roadbed, including building bridge abutments and culverts. Look hard and you might be able to find evidence of some of the work along Ohio 7 east of Marietta.
Nowhere, however, is as evident as the tunnel under the interstate. It is massive.
A document from 1964 shows the tunnel in place on plans for the bridge construction. The corrugated metal is 24 feet wide, 22 wide and 244 feet long. It was built slightly above the nearby ground level because if the rail line had ever been constructed the roadbed would have built up a bit.
It was cheaper at the time to put the tunnel in place than it would have been to go back and deal with it later if the railroad had ever been finished.
Penn Central was already declining in the late 1960s. It filed for bankruptcy in 1970. The last train to travel north out of Marietta retrieved a hopper car that had delivered flour to a Marietta bakery. The Conrail train made a slow trip north to Newcomerstown on May 15, 1976.
The Penn Central Railroad Corporation released the easement on July 13, 1984, marking an end to the rail line that was never built and an interesting footnote to the tunnel that was never used.
Art Smith is online manager of The Parkersburg News and The Marietta Times, he can be reached at asmith@newsandsentinel.com.