After the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery, it still allowed involuntary servitude as punishment for even petty crimes such as being unemployed, and the railroad industry used prisoners for labor throughout the U.S. Black men and women built the Swannanoa Tunnel, which enabled Asheville to connect to Salisbury, NC, and to cities throughout the U.S. These incarcerated Black people labored in chains at gunpoint in work camps, where women cooked and mended clothes and men were forced to drag a 34,000-pound locomotive through the 1,832-foot-long tunnel before tracks were laid. Nearly 400 laborers died from injuries and illness while constructing the rail line. Passenger rail service began in Asheville in 1880, and Depot Street and the surrounding area later became a hub for Black businesses and residences.