Thursday, January 17, 2008

Chapter Six Tunnel Stories


This is the old B&O railroad tunnel along Wheeling Creek. As kids one of our adventures was going through the tunnel. There was not a whole lot of room in there and I always wondered what we would do it the train came. As you can see being caught on the bridge was not a good alternative either.

Not far from this tunnel is where the new twin tunnels for Route 70 are built. My fond memory of the interstate tunnel was the night I was stopped by the Highway Patrol after making a run through the tunnel on my motor cycle. It all started with a demonstration ride to a potential buyer for the motorcycle. Each tunnel has two lanes heading each direction. I came into the tunnel from the west and thought it would be a great demo if I went through the tunnel as fast and loud as I could. In order to reach maximum speed I had to weave across the double line from one lane to the next. It was late at night and when I pulled into the tunnel from the on ramp on the river side, I had no idea I was pulling in front of the State Police. The police were not to happy with my road show, but did not want to turn on their siren, because they feared I would reach the other end of the tunnel and cross the median and escape back through the other tunnel. So the two fine officers scared themselves pretty bad trying to get through the tunnel and keep up with me. As we came out of the tunnel into the dark the trooper on the right side of the car blinded me with a spotlight and I pulled over. The trooper with the spotlight said to the one driving "We should take this guy up in the bushes and beat him". I was hoping we could work out a better arrangement, but I knew in West Virginia this was one remedy for traffic violations. Fortunately the senior patrolman prevailed and all I got was a ticket for one hundred dollars.

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