Qualla: Memorial Tunnel https://qualla.com/memorial-tunnel en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/0/memorial-tunnel-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Memorial Tunnel https://qualla.com/memorial-tunnel Memorial Tunnel: Introduction https://qualla.com/memorial-tunnel/ Photo credit Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass., Public domain. By 1987, the Memorial Tunnel was a bottleneck. The West Virginia Turnpike had been widened from two lanes to four over its entire 88-mile length - everywhere except inside this 2,802-foot tunnel through Paint Creek Mountain, where four-lane expansion was impossible without boring a new tunnel. The state built a parallel route around the mountain instead and closed the tunnel to interstate traffic. What happened next made the abandoned tunnel improbably famous in the engineering world. Between 1993 and 1995, the Federal Highway Administration deliberately set 98 fires inside the closed tunnel - some of them simulating massive truck fires consuming hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel - to test ventilation systems that would later inform the design of Boston's Big Dig, the Channel Tunnel, and most major American highway tunnel construction since. Then it became an anti-terrorism training facility. Now it grows mushrooms.

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Image: Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass. | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/0/memorial-tunnel-wp/dny0-memorial-tunnel-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Memorial Tunnel: Eighty-Eight Miles of Miracle https://qualla.com/memorial-tunnel/ Photo credit Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass., Public domain. Construction of the Memorial Tunnel began in 1952 and finished in November 1954, the same year the West Virginia Turnpike opened as one of the new postwar limited-access toll roads connecting the eastern interstate system to the central Appalachians. The turnpike, with its tunnel...

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Image: Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass. | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/0/memorial-tunnel-wp/dny0-memorial-tunnel-eighty-eight-miles-of-miracle.mp3 0:06 2 full Memorial Tunnel: Bypassed and Closed https://qualla.com/memorial-tunnel/ Photo credit Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass., Public domain. By the late 1970s, traffic on the turnpike had outgrown the two-lane tunnel. The rest of the route was widened to four lanes between 1976 and 1983. Memorial Tunnel could not be widened in place - the geometry of an existing two-lane bore through a mountain made any expansion enor...

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Image: Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass. | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/0/memorial-tunnel-wp/dny0-memorial-tunnel-bypassed-and-closed.mp3 0:06 3 full Memorial Tunnel: The Fire Tests https://qualla.com/memorial-tunnel/ Photo credit Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass., Public domain. Between 1993 and 1995, the Federal Highway Administration in partnership with the Massachusetts Highway Department conducted what became known as the Memorial Tunnel Fire Ventilation Test Program. The project deliberately set 98 fires inside the closed tunnel, ranging from small ...

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Image: Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass. | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/0/memorial-tunnel-wp/dny0-memorial-tunnel-the-fire-tests.mp3 0:06 4 full Memorial Tunnel: Anti-Terrorism Training and Mushrooms https://qualla.com/memorial-tunnel/ Photo credit Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass., Public domain. After the fire tests concluded, the tunnel found its next role. By 2000, the Center for National Response - a Department of Defense partnership program - had set up shop in the abandoned tunnel as a training facility for military and civilian first responders. The site allowed ex...

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Image: Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass. | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/0/memorial-tunnel-wp/dny0-memorial-tunnel-anti-terrorism-training-and-mushrooms.mp3 0:06 5 full Memorial Tunnel: Flying Over Paint Creek Mountain https://qualla.com/memorial-tunnel/ Photo credit Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass., Public domain. From the air, the Memorial Tunnel itself is invisible - it is, after all, a tunnel - but the surface routing around Paint Creek Mountain that replaced it is clearly visible as the current path of the West Virginia Turnpike (Interstate 64 / Interstate 77). The original tunnel port...

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Image: Pub. by The A. W. Smith News Agency, Charleston, W. Va. "Tichnor Quality Views," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass. | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/0/memorial-tunnel-wp/dny0-memorial-tunnel-flying-over-paint-creek-mountain.mp3 0:06 6 full