In October of 2017 when Ye Olde Photographer and his Faire Spouse were returning from a family event in Indianapolis, we spent a few hours in St. Clairsville, Ohio. We have often stayed in hotels near the I-70/I-470 junction on the east side of town to break the 600+ mile trip into less tiresome sections. On this trek we took three days and checked out a few things along our way.

This time our primary activity was walking the southern half of the National Road Bikeway. This is a very nicely done repurposing of a former B&O Railroad line that runs north-south on the western side of the city. We didn't walk far enought to get to it, but there is a steel trestle near the northern end that we drove under in our travels. It gleams with fresh paint and according to online info provides quite a nice view as one crosses its wooden deck.

There are two tunnels on the trail, one under Interstate 70 is a 2013 vintage tunnel-like underpass below the highway. The second tunnel, which bores under US 40, The National Road, is original to the railroad. It was built in 1902, with some rehabilitation in 1949, and again in 1997. The interior has some lighting and is remarkably cool inside. According to online info it is 522 feet long, with an interior height of 42 feet! That seems rather high, but may have been done to make life easier when traveling through behind steam locomotives.

At the northern portal of the tunnel, donors have erected a set of steel stairs and platforms that allow climbing up to the surface level near US 40, some 80 feet above the trail grade. There is also a nice pavilion around the mid-trail point, and an interesting little gazebo-like place roofed with wisteria closer to the I-70 tunnel. (YOP assumes it was wisteria, it was not blooming in October, but the leaf and trunk structure looked right!)

After burning some calories on the trail we went to the center of town and had a tasty lunch at the Newell Street Diner, just up the street from the impressive Belmont County Courthouse, a delightfully gingerbread-y structure from 1886.