The Blue Ridge Tunnel was an amazing feat of both engineering and execution when it was built in the 1850s—a fact acknowledged by the American Society of Civil Engineers when they named it an Historic Landmark in 1976. While the former was the work of our town’s namesake, Claudius Crozet, the latter was accomplished by over 1,000 men, including Irish immigrants and over 300 rented slaves. The exhibit “Voices of the Blue Ridge Tunnel: When Men Were Machines,” opened at the R.R. Smith Center for the Arts in downtown Staunton on September 6 to a packed house. It highlighted the lives of these workers with informational panels, photographs, tableaus of workers with their tools, and an interactive digital kiosk where visitors could choose to learn more about Claudius Crozet, the overall project, the enslaved worker, or the Irish workforce. The exhibit will close for the holidays at Thanksgiving and re-open in January to continue through 2025.