Board Tree Tunnel

The Board Tree Tunnel, near Littleton, West Virginia, was built between 1851 and 1858 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on its main line between Baltimore, Maryland, and Wheeling, West Virginia, under the supervision of B&O chief engineer Benjamin Henry Latrobe, II. The 2,350-foot (720 m)^[1] tunnel used a segmental cast iron lining system pioneered on the contemporaneous Kingwood Tunnel on the same line.^[2]

Board Tree Tunnel

South portal of Board Tree Tunnel in 1974
Overview
Location	Littleton, West Virginia
Coordinates	39.72191°N 80.53021°W / 39.72191; -80.53021
Status	abandoned
Operation
Work begun	1851
Constructed	brick and cut stone
Opened	1858
Technical
Length	2,350 feet (720 m)
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

Workers were recruited from coal mines in the area to excavate the tunnel. The tunneling operations used black powder as explosive. About 30 deaths and 300 injuries occurred in the excavation of the Board Tree and Kingwood tunnels. The tunnel is now abandoned.^[2]

See also

• List of tunnels documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in West Virginia