Mary E. Lyons, author of THE BLUE RIDGE TUNNEL: A REMARKABLE ENGINEERING FEAT IN ANTEBELLUM VIRGINIA, with Paul Collinge

Please join us as we welcome Mary E. Lyons and Paul Collinge as they discuss Lyons’ new book, THE BLUE RIDGE TUNNEL: A REMARKABLE ENGINEERING FEAT IN ANTEBELLUM VIRGINIA. We know how fascinating the Blue Ridge tunnel is to many of you — people ask us what we know about it all the time! This is the detailed story of the Blue Ridge Tunnel, engineered by Claudius Crozet, and the many hundreds of workers overseen by Crozet — Irish miners, their families, and enslaved African Americans — who for ten years hand-drilled and blasted through tons of rock to build it. Beginning with the Great Irish Famine, the author traces the story of these laborers and their progress at the tunnel between 1850 and 1860.

Mary E. Lyons is the author of nineteen award-winning books. Paul Collinge is the owner of Heartwood Bookshop in Charlottesville.