Aban/Pennsy/WB&T Top Mill & Mount Wood Tunnels and Bridge over Wheeling Creek in Wheeling, WV

Top Mill, North Portal: (Satellite)

Top Mill, South Portal: (Satellite)

Mount Wood, North Portal: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

Mount Wood, South Portal: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

Bridge: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Flickr; Satellite)

WB&T = Wheeling Bridge & Terminal Railway [ArchivedBridgeHunter_bridge]

The route was built in 1888 and abandoned in 1982. [Archived Bridge Hunter County Index]

The bridge that was the namesake for the WB&T was probably the one over the Ohio River, not this one.

1956/58 Wheeling Quad @ 24,000

The 1994 topo map shows that the route was abandoned, but the Ohio River Bridge was still standing.

1994/98 Wheeling quad @ 24,000

But a 1994 satellite image shows the Ohio River Bridge is gone. I've noticed a trend that topo maps are quicker to add new things than to remove old things.

Google Earth, Mar 1994

Dave Kuntz Drone Photos posted photos with the comment: "The ground around the Mount Wood Tunnel in Wheeling WV is also being raised, hence you can look down on it from the landfill that will someday bury it."

[I presume this is the north portal because I can't imagine them building a landfill on McColloch Street. It appears they are filling the valley between Top Hill and Mount Wood with trash. Even though there was a ceiling collapse in the middle of this tunnel, people were talking about the WB&T becoming the Wheeling Heritage Trail. If they are covering the tunnel portal with trash, I presume they gave up on the trail.]

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The south portal of the Mount Wood Tunnel connects with the north end of the bridge.

2009 photo by Joshua Collins via BridgeHunter_mount_wood_south_portal

The south portal is in the trees on the left.

Street View, Jul 2019

Dave Kuntz Drone Photos posted five photos with the comment: "Look carefully - there is a tunnel at the edge of this bridge.  This structure in Wheeling WV goes straight into the Mount Wood tunnel in the left of the second photo but is so overgrown it can barely be seen."

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For the Mount Wood Tunnel, BridgeHunter_north_portal specifies a length of 537' (164m), but BridgeHunter_south_portal specifies 1203' (367m). I included the scale in this map excerpt that has all four tunnel portals labelled. The 1203' length looks more correct. Actually, 537' is probably the length of the Top Mill Tunnel.

Satellite

Photo via Bridge & Tunnels and BridgeHunter_mount_wood_north_portal
B&T specifies lengths of 1,226' and 587' with a reference to a plaque.

SteamPhotos has lengths of 1203' and 587'.