The 1447 foot long Chetoogeta Mountain railroad tunnel lies one-half mile east and was completed in 1850, opening the W&A Railroad from Atlanta to Chattanooga. It was the first railroad tunnel completed south of the Mason-Dixon line and linked railroads from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. During the late 1840's, while the tunnel was under construction, the railroad was operating and goods and passengers were portaged over Chetoogeta Mountain. A community grew near the construction activity, and Clisby Austin built a three story hotel in 1848; Tunnel Hill was incorporated on March 4, 1848. The W&A was approved by the Georgia Legislature in 1836 and surveyed by Stephen Harriman Long. Construction of the 137 mile line took 13 years and cost more than four million dollars. William L. Mitchell was Chief Engineer and William Gray was Chief Mason, and Gray was given the honor of being the first to pass through the tunnel when the two headings were driven through on October 31, 1849. The tunnel remained in use until larger locomotives and loads necessitated a larger tunnel in 1928. It also figured in one of the most colorful exploits of the Civil War, the Great Locomotive Chase, when James J. Andrews and his band of Union "engine thieves" raced the stolen General through the tunnel while the Texas, under Wm. Fuller, and Confederate forces pursued them closely.

Photo: David Seibert

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: Mark Hilton

Photo: Mark Hilton

Photo: David Tibbs