Indigo Tunnel is an abandoned

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

in Allegany County, Maryland, located about east of Little Orleans. Built by the

Western Maryland Railway The Western Maryland Railway was an American Class I railroad (1852–1983) which operated in Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It was primarily a coal hauling and freight railroad, with a small passenger train operation. The WM beca ...

(WM) in 1904 as part of its Cumberland Extension project from Hagerstown west to Cumberland along the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

valley, which involved construction of four additional tunnels and 23 bridges, Indigo was the WM's longest tunnel. The new rail line opened in 1906. Trains ran through the tunnel until the rail line was abandoned by the newly formed Chessie System in 1975, in favor of the parallel Baltimore and Ohio railroad line on the opposite side of the Potomac River. The tunnel was acquired by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

in 1980 and became part of

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is located in the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland. The park was established in 1961 as a National Monument by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the neglected remains o ...

.National Park Service. Washington, D.C. (1981-07-23). National Register of Historic Places Inventory--Nomination Form. In 2010, the Park Service identified

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...

colonies living in the tunnel and closed the tunnel to the public in order to protect the colonies.National Park Service. Hagerstown, MD
"Indigo Tunnel Bat Habitat - Installation of Bat Gates, Interim Closure."
Accessed 2010-12-19. The tunnel and adjoining right of way were sold to the State of Maryland to be developed as the

Western Maryland Rail Trail The Western Maryland Rail Trail (WMRT) is a shared-use rail trail in the U.S. state of Maryland that follows the former right-of-way of the Western Maryland Railway (WM) between Fort Frederick State Park and Little Orleans via Hancock, parallelin ...

(WMRT). The section of WMRT that includes the tunnel opened in 2019, but due to an endangered bat species that inhabits the tunnel, it remains closed to the public. Instead, the WMRT bypasses the tunnel via the C&O Canal and towpath–rail trail connections that were constructed near each of the tunnel's portals.

References

* Western Maryland Railway Co., Baltimore, MD (1954)
"Track Chart: Cumberland to Hagerstown."
* waymarking.com
"Indigo Tunnel."
Accessed 2010-12-19. Tunnels in Allegany County, Maryland Railroad tunnels in Maryland Western Maryland Railway tunnels Tunnels completed in 1904 1904 establishments in Maryland {{US-tunnel-stub

See also

References