Blogging the Railroad Tunnels

It’s interesting.  This is at 36.09553, -83.251823.  “Why,” you say, “that’s on Douglas Lake!”   Right again, swami.

This is a long abandoned rail line (now under someone’s backyard, as you can see) that wyed off and went slightly east of another line heading in a more southerly direction.  This line went across a high point in the lake (some call them islands, but they’re really just the tops of hills), past a strange structure (see it at unclebobstravels.com) and on to a now isolated and rusting through truss bridge over the French Broad River.  The railway must have been mightily upset with TVA back in 1941-42, when they realized that a dam was going to be built which would impound a lake (officially a reservoir) that would cause them to do costly rearranging of their lines in the area.  It annoyed many other people for other reasons, but, it was wartime, and the government needed electricity.  These structures remain as reminders that this was once a fertile, much loved valley with creeks and hills and farms.  Did you ever read about the lead-up activities to the Five Gorges Dam in southern China?  Same thing.
Nice lettering, though.