October 2006 .............

Cumberland Gap: Left Corbin early one morning and headed down Highway 25E to spend the day at the Cumberland Gap. We went through Pineville and noticed the concrete flood walls around the town. Had to stop and read the information sign, glad we did. The town was originally called Cumberland Ford, the community developed a shallow crossing on the Cumberland River called" The Narrows". Although not as well known as the Cumberland Gap, The Narrows was a key passage on  the Wilderness Road that led settlers from the East to Kentucky. A 1946 flood lead to the construction of levees and flood walls. We had never before seen flood gates that could be closed across the road.

Cumberland Gap: The drive to the Pinnacle Overlook has so many hairpin turns that it is closed to vehicles over 20 feet long. The view is spectacular, you can see three states, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. As you walk to the observation point on one of the trails you cross into Virginia.
The Cumberland Gap passes across the Cumberland Mountain region of the Appalachian Mountains. As the main east-west gap in the mountains it was an important part of the Wilderness Road, an old indian path which in 1775 Daniel Boone, and 35 men, widened, thus opening up the western frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee. The trail was widened again in the 1790's to accommodate wagon traffic. It is estimated 200,000 to 300,000 immigrants passed through the gap before 1810. The road was abandoned  in 1840. The gap changed hands four time during the Civil War. Both armies held and fortified the gap against an invasion that never came. It was finally abandoned in 1866 by the Federal Army. Since the opening of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel in the mid 1990's the gap trail has been restored like the pioneers first saw it.

Cumberland Gap Tunnel: Construction was started in 1991, the pilot tunnel being ten feet high, ten feet wide and 4100 feet long. A year later excavation from each side of the mountain met in precise alignment. In 1996 the project was completed and there are twin tunnels, each with two driving lanes, 4,600 feet long. The tallest point inside the tunnel is 30 feet and there are cross passages every 300 feet to connect the tunnels and provide emergency services. One entrance of the tunnel is in Kentucky and one in Tennessee.

Cumberland Gap, Tennessee: As you cross the tunnel from Kentucky to Tennessee you come to the historic town of Cumberland Gap. It's a quaint little town with lots of local culture. We ate lunch at Webb's diner, complete with checkered tablecloths and lots of old photos. At the edge of town is the remains of an iron furnace, which operated from about 1820 until 1880 (except for the Civil War years), In the furnace limestone and ore were heated by coal and converted to Pig Iron. From the furnace we then hiked a portion of the Wilderness Trail through the Cumberland Gap.

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