Claudius Crozet and the Blue Ridge Railroad

"This thankless business" 


And so ended, in 1858, the last letter that Claudius Crozet wrote about the greatest challenge of his engineering career—construction of the Blue Ridge Railroad. One hundred and thirty accurately transcribed letters trace in detail the events that plagued him. These included the almost-unbearable burden of vicious petitions calling for investigation of his management. It’s no wonder that Crozet resigned four months before the Blue Ridge Tunnel opened in 1858.


Claudius Crozet and the Blue Ridge Railroad: Selected Letters offers a private look at the public man. Annotated and searchable, the letters are illustrated with rare historic documents and antique maps. The images allow a glimpse of antebellum railroad history as it unfolded. Recent photographs—never published before—reveal the culverts, cuts, tunnels, and tracks that still survive, long after Crozet sought, as he wrote, "to accommodate as speedily as possible the traveling public."