Before The Tunnel (25E)
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- čas přidán 20. 08. 2024
- Travel back in time down 25E before the tunnel was built! This video documents the drive from Captain D's (in front of the Middlesboro Mall) to the Pinnacle and ends at the welcome center.
Music: Bensound.com
Middlesboro, Kentucky
Old 25E
Before the tunnel
I live in Middlesboro. Love this video. This mountain was called ‘Massacre mountain’ by locals. Every one knew of someone that either died or was in an accident and survived on this road. I was so thankful the tunnel was completed by the time my children became of driving age. I would love to find video of old route before Cumberland Gap bypass was built. Use to have to go through little town of Cumberland Gap heading south to Tazewell, etc. Again, thank you so much for posting this big part of history.
The happier times in life. Although things are more convenient today. It still makes me sad when I think back on the good more peaceful days.
Man, this is an awesome trip down memory lane. This is, in fact, mostly Pinnacle Rd, BUT the video does start on old 25E. I remember when I was 6 or so, right after the tunnel opened, my dad and I hiked up to the old road from the iron furnace. In 2015 I took a trip down the entirety of US25 and I wanted to close the trip by hiking up to the old 25E in Cumberland gap. I was disappointed to find they had busted it up. Definitely appropriate to do, but a bit of a bittersweet removal of Americana for historical purposes. Thanks for this footage.
What a blast from the past. The mountain into Tn was treacherous to say the least. I miss being able to drive up to cudjo caverns. It's called gap cave now. It will forever be the former to me.
I drove this 4 times in 89. Funny how it looks differant than I remember. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for posting this nostalgic view of yesteryear! 👍🇱🇷
I remember travelling this road before the tunnel was constructed and completed. Worked in Middlesboro back in the day. Mountain was treacherous especially during rain and snow.
So grateful for the folks at Fed Hwy Administration who worked in conjunction with Vaughn & Melton Engineers whose construction of the CGT helped save so many lives!❤
About 25 years ago my uncle saved a woman trapped in a car after being crushed by a falling tree traveling on this road. She was in the back seat with a baby. The 2 in the front seat were crushed and killed. He left soon afterwards and came back to Texas never to return. He said that road was a death trap.
I remember driving the old road BEFORE the tunnel was completed.
I wish that road was still there
Thanks for the memories
That was pinnacle road, not old 25e, I went to college at LMU in Harrogate. Your video
Did not pass Cujous Cave on the actual 25e.
I wished that there were more videos like this surfaced on CZcams. The camcorder shakes have taken me off focus (not your fault) and there wasn't such thing as 4K technology back in the 1980s. I tried to explain to my late father in the 2010s after watching an episode of Snake Salvation that the Cumberland Gap tunnel existed for the purpose of doing away with the old mountainous road. I cannot imagine how an 18-wheeler would drive through the old road (especially a US highway) and what was the grade percentage back then? I am glad that Dad never attempted the old road or the family van would've broke down. Thanks for sharing.
There was a date that said 27 March 1989. I love this kind of stuff. You should put that in your description.
It reminds me of Tail of the Dragon in TN or Marias Pas in MT. Don't get in a hurry and stay in your lane. Must be treacherous in dark with rain or snow. Tunnel must have cut so much time off the trip.
I was born and raised in Middlesboro (the Kentucky side), and graduated from LMU (the Tennessee side) in 1983. It didn't really change the time of the drive by much if any, really, but it for sure changed the danger of the drive! The scariest part isn't on here, which is just past where they first pull over and where it went down to a two lane winding road that wove between Cudjo's Cave and the little trading post across from it. The trading post/store was perched right on the edge, looking down on the Cumberland Gap. You not only had to deal with the road there, you had the traffic of the store pulling in and out.. I wish they had left public access to that old road for historical and nostalgic reasons.
oops, forgot to say that the trip to and from The Pinnacle is a different road and direction than where the tunnel is and what it was built for. The Pinnacle road has not changed, and the access to it is actually in the park back at the beginning of the video at the bottom of the mountain in Middlesboro (just past KFC). It just dawned on me that for someone watching who had never been there, that this video would be misleading. At the point where they pull over near the top of the mountain, they turned the camera off, turned around and went back down the mountain and turned into the Park and then drove up to the Pinnacle. That drive up to the Pinnacle is not on the video. They then turned the camera back on once they got there, and then again on the way down for just a small portion of that drive.. Too bad they don't have any shots of the view from The Pinnacle! (but there are youtube videos of that if you are interested.... and they are breathtaking! You should be able to find those with a "Pinnacle" and/or Cumberland Gap search in the search bar)
The good times what year was this shot Thank you
Vinegar pie ! Tri state trail !
I couldn't make heads or tails of it
Also 25e is a major truck route, in your video you didn't pass any trucks.
Cudjos caves
Back when men were men. Think about what I said.