The Wilkes Street Tunnel

Alexandria, VA, August 5, 2011: In search of a better, cleaner Safeway, we happened upon the Wilkes Street Tunnel and decided to explore. The tunnel was built in 1851 by the Orange & Alexandria Railroad to connect the Alexandria waterfront through a bluff to the farms of the Virginia Piedmont. The tunnel was refurbished in 2008 and preserved as a walkway.

The eastern side of the tunnel opens onto Windmill Hill Park and this view of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge:
At the east end of the bridge is the Potomac River Waterfront Park that hovers over the traffic lanes on the bridge:
Catfish caught in river (l):











Osprey on the river:
View of the Capitol (l); the Alexandria waterfront (r):

We didn't find a better, cleaner Safeway.