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1 2   UER Forum > Archived US: Mid-Atlantic > Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? (Viewed 2418 times) TheWolfman269  Location: Nashville, Tennessee Gender: Male If it looks like a wolf, acts like a wolf, and howls like a wolf, it's probably an asshole.  |  |  Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? < on 12/14/2010 7:29 PM >   First off, howdy all. I'm new around here so bear with me if this isn't quite up to standard. Feel free to tell me how to correct it. I recently became interested in prohibition tunnels (thanks to an episode of Castle) and the tunnels running under Chicago, New York, and so on. And I got thinking to myself, obviously this should be true for Nashville too. It was around for prohibition. And god knows we were crankin out moonshine left and right and had to get it into Nashville somehow. We had the Civil War, Underground railroad, and so on. Plus Nashville is built on lime and sandstone which is perfect for tunnels. So there had to be something, right? Well, I did some checking into it and first off let me say that if they exist past what I found, no one is talking about em. I'm going to try and list these in as much of an organized manner as I can but bear in mind that all of the information was very small bits found here and there so it doesn't all match up. "I've got military training, a giant crowbar, and I've already been shot. What can really stop me?" - Myself TheWolfman269  Location: Nashville, Tennessee Gender: Male If it looks like a wolf, acts like a wolf, and howls like a wolf, it's probably an asshole.  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 1 on 12/14/2010 7:31 PM >   The first tunnel I found out about is in Printer's Alley. If you know the history of Nashville, then you know that Printer's Alley has a long standing tradition in being THE place to go for women and booze. I figured that if a tunnel existed, that was where it would be. I found out about one in what is now the “Nashville Dinner Theater”. The theater is located in what’s known to most Nashvillians’ as the Boots Randolph building. After purchasing the building, they were cleaning out the wine cellar and discovered a tunnel that is supposed to run from Printer’s Alley all the way to the Cumberland. “The building built in 1880 has a rich history including a tunnel that snakes all the way to the Cumberland River through which during prohibition they smuggled liquor into the bars in Printer’s Alley. The building has been many things during its long history until Boots Randolph purchased it in 1974 when he completely renovated into his personal stage where he preformed for the next 20 years.” I have already contacted the owners and operators of the building trying to get permission to go in through their basement and explore the tunnel. If I CAN get permission, I’m looking to go down there and take a lot of pictures to document it. I’ve already told the owners if they will allow me to go down and take pictures, I’d be more than happy to let them have copies of them to put up in their lobby. If they do give me permission, I’d be lying if I said I was a great photographer. I was trying to get in touch with SaraBellum or anyone else in the Nashville area that would like to come along with me. And of course if I CAN’T get permission, I’m just going to wander along the banks of the Cumberland to find the other side of the tunnel entrance and go in that way. =) "I've got military training, a giant crowbar, and I've already been shot. What can really stop me?" - Myself TheWolfman269  Location: Nashville, Tennessee Gender: Male If it looks like a wolf, acts like a wolf, and howls like a wolf, it's probably an asshole.  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 2 on 12/14/2010 7:33 PM >   The second tunnels I’ve been able to find out about are under Hume Fogg High School. These tunnels are known to exist but near as I can tell, no one has ever explored them enough to determine where they go. There are supposedly 5 different tunnels that branch out from the basement down there. And at least one of them is supposed to run from Hume Fogg all the way down to the Cumberland River. Obviously, I am working on finding a way to gain access to these tunnels as well and welcome anyone who would like to come along with me. While I couldn’t find many “facts” about these tunnels, I did come across an interesting story that might peak your interest… “This is the answer I heard from a man I’ll call Elias. Elias isn’t from Nashville. He’d flown in specifically to retrieve Rabbi Heiman’s remains, if there were any. A friend of a friend got me a meeting with him over breakfast before he left again, never to return. Here is what he told me, parts of which, obviously, had been told to him. There are a series of tunnels running under downtown. Not utility tunnels, but honest secret passages, designed to allow people to sneak out of buildings unseen and down to the river. Most of these tunnels were put in places shortly after the Civil War. Regardless of where their sympathies lied, the occupation was very difficult for the citizens of Nashville. Fields had been destroyed. Almost all of the trees had been cut or burned down. The streets were thick with soldiers and the attendant illicit businesses that sprang up to serve them. And then, after Lincoln’s assassination, there was a very real fear that the Federal government would come into the South and annihilate it in retaliation People wanted protected escape routes. And so the tunnels were put in. After the the destruction of the city ceased to feel like an immediate threat, the tunnels started to serve other purposes. They became a way for white men to slip in and out of Black Bottom unseen by disapproving neighbors, for liquor and prostitutes to make their way into “good” establishments, and, by the early 1900s, there were rumors of something else,that the tunnels had become a safe place for the worst kinds of men. People disappeared in the tunnels. They went in and they never came out. This was kept secret, as much as possible, by the town fathers because no one wanted the police to look into what else was going on in the tunnels. But it was impossible to cover up the disappearance of Portia Rutledge, a lovely girl from a prominent family. She had been with her sister and her sister’s husband, exploring the tunnels that ran from the brand new Hume Fogg school towards the river. Her sister and brother-in-law had turned a corner just moments before her, mere seconds, and she was gone. She never rounded that corner. They searched the tunnels as far as they could, but by 1920, it was a maze beneath the city streets. They came up for help and a search party was organized. For three days they searched, but there was no sign of her. Weeks later, two street kids were in the tunnels, trying to escape the heat and the truant officer, when they heard faint sobbing. They followed the noise and, eventually, found Portia Rutledge’s body, maybe a hundred yards from one of the Hume Fogg tunnel entrances. Elias told me that there wasn’t a mark on her body. This is where the story gets very strange. Portia Rutledge’s body had been found, within easy distance of a tunnel entrance, and yet no one would go in and retrieve the body. Stranger still, the papers were still reporting her missing. People were speculating that she’d fallen in love with someone her family disapproved of and that she was probably living in Bowling Green, laughing at everyone still looking for her. One of the families in Rabbi Heiman’s congregation owned a dry goods store downtown. And they had begun to hear a woman sobbing in the basement of their store. They mentioned this to Rabbi Heiman, who thought it was strange, but he assured them that the sobbing woman was probably just a prostitute living in the tunnels. He advised them to leave some bread on the other side of their tunnel entrance, just a little something to make her life easier. Shortly after that the owner of the store overheard the street kids talking, not only about the crying in the tunnels, but the body their friends had discovered, and the store owner became very concerned. By the description the kids gave, he was certain that it was Portia Rutledge. He was also becoming more certain that the sobbing in the tunnel was connected to her body being left in the tunnel. The shop owner went to see the Rabbi and told him his suspicions and what he overheard the kids saying. “Her body has been found,” Rabbi Heiman said, “and yet no one has moved it?” “I know this is not our concern,” the shop owner said. “Maybe this is some kind of family tradition?” But they both knew that was not true. Rabbi Heiman mulled this over for days. He felt compelled, suspecting her spirit was trapped down there, to try to do something. He also knew that he might be placing his family and congregation in a great deal of danger if he, in any way, made it seem as if they could be blamed for her disappearance. Even connecting himself to her recovery might be enough to cast suspicion for her death. “I should go look,” Rabbi Heiman said to the shop owner. “No, no,” the shop owner said. “Let someone in the Chevra Kadisha go.” “No. If there is trouble with her people, I will be the most likely to get out of it,” said the Rabbi. He decided to go into the tunnels through the basement of the dry goods store and make his way up, unseen, to Hume Fogg. He never made it that far and he came out of the tunnel deeply shaken. The owner of the dry goods store helped him sit on a crate. The owner’s son brought him some water. “Just a few blocks up,” he motioned with his hand, before wiping his brow, “I started to hear footsteps, heavy footsteps, in front of me. I dimmed my lantern and ducked into a side tunnel. I could hear the footsteps getting closer and closer. Finally, they were so loud I would have sworn there was a man not three feet from me. But I could see, even by dim light, that the tunnel was empty. “I heard a voice, thought. A man’s voice. He said ‘This ain’t no place for a man of God, Reverend. Down here’s all the stuff He don’t see.’” “And the girl?” “I didn’t find her. I will have to try again.” “Let her own people worry about her,” the store owner said. “But now I know,” the Rabbi said. “If I find her, I can leave a note for her family, tell them where to look.” The Rabbi went down in the tunnels again the next day. He had been gone maybe an hour when the shop owner and his son heard distant screams. “Rabbi?” The shop owner yelled into the tunnel entrance. “Rabbi!” The two grabbed a lantern and started down into the tunnel. Far, far ahead of them, they saw a dim, shaking light rushing towards them. The Rabbi was yelling, “Run! Go back! Go back!” They began to slowly back up, afraid to leave the tunnel without him. They were, maybe, five feet from the door to their basement. Their lantern cast a pool of light maybe ten feet beyond what came from the basement. And the man and his son both saw the Rabbi, for a second, at the far edge of the darkness. “Go back,” he said again. And then he fell, or maybe his feet were yanked out from under him, and he hit the ground, hard. The man scrambled forward to try to grab the Rabbi, but the Rabbi screamed, “No,” and the man’s son dragged the man back into the basement. The son slammed the door. The man and his son tried later that day to search the tunnels for any sign of the Rabbi. There was none. In the distance, they thought they sometimes heard heavy footsteps, though. Later, after the story got out that the Rabbi had returned to St. Louis (a place the Rabbi had never actually even visited), the man and his son blocked the tunnel, at least a hundred feet beyond their door. Shortly after this, one of the other downtown business owners came to pay them a visit. “You need to unblock the tunnel,” he said. “You can do what you want in your own store, but those tunnels remain open. Do you understand? We have a deal that the tunnels remain open.” “Who has a deal?” the shop owner’s son asked. The businessman looked angry and frightened. “It’s not any of your business.” Elias told me that other things had happened, things that made the shop owner’s family very, very afraid, not of the thing in the tunnels, but of the other businessmen downtown. The Rabbi’s home burnt down, for instance, and the Rabbi’s widow and his children barely escaped with their lives. They were sent to St. Louis, where it was thought they’d be safer. The shop keeper and his son began to put a little cash aside. Not even enough to be noticed. They didn’t want to raise any suspicions at the bank or among the other businessmen, didn’t want anyone gossiping about how strange it was that their profits were down, even as their foot traffic remained steady. But enough so that whenever a hole was dug for a new building, they could pay a person to search whatever tunnels were discovered for the Rabbi’s remains. Elias had been hired by the shop owner’s grandson, himself now an old man, to get into the tunnels opened up while they were excavating the new convention center. “And did you find him?” I asked. “I did,” he said quietly. “He was about a hundred yards from one of the Hume-Fogg entrances, just dust and bones and a few scraps of clothing. I was able to identify him by his cufflinks. Nearby was a woman’s skeleton.” “Weird,” I said. “Do you think he found her?” “No, I think his body had been placed near hers after he was killed.” “My god. Did you recover her body, too?” “No,” Elias said, quietly. “that was not my job.” “And what about that thing, that man? Do you think he’s still down there?” Elias stared at the people passing by us for a long, long time. “I know he is,” he said. “Let me ask you? Do you think it’s possible that he is worse now than he was? That killing a man of God could make him worse? Or do you think it’s always been that bad down there? How could a city have sat on top of that for a hundred years?” “You said they mentioned something about a deal.” “Who would depend on a deal made with the likes of him?” “ "I've got military training, a giant crowbar, and I've already been shot. What can really stop me?" - Myself TheWolfman269  Location: Nashville, Tennessee Gender: Male If it looks like a wolf, acts like a wolf, and howls like a wolf, it's probably an asshole.  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 3 on 12/14/2010 7:34 PM >   The only other information I could find concerning tunnels under Nashville are the utility tunnels underneath Vanderbilt University. While they are explored already and pretty well known about, at least to the staff, they are still worth checking out. I haven’t done so yet but once again, am looking to get a group together to go. I won’t go through all the trouble of cutting and pasting all the information on this here as it all came from the same place. Someone was kind enough to leave a website up with all the needed information. I suggest reading the original news article on it (Literature) as well as the Commentary section as the latter provides the location of the entrances. Be warned though, it is EXTREMELY hot down there due to the steam pipes running all over the place. The website can be found here… http://www.angelfi...subterra/index.htm "I've got military training, a giant crowbar, and I've already been shot. What can really stop me?" - Myself TheWolfman269  Location: Nashville, Tennessee Gender: Male If it looks like a wolf, acts like a wolf, and howls like a wolf, it's probably an asshole.  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 4 on 12/14/2010 7:36 PM >   In conclusion of all of this, I am looking for more tunnels in the Middle Tennessee area. I have a friend in Murfreesboro that tells me that a house he used to live in had a secret tunnel accessed through the living room floor. He had no idea where it went. Which I then smacked him in the back of the head for him never telling me about this. Nashville HAS to have more tunnels under it than just this. Please, anyone that has heard of more or has more information, even if it is only rumors which I can then prove or disprove, let me know. And as mentioned, I would LOVE to get a group of us together for all of these so I can meet other Urban Explorers in Nashville or the Boro. Thanks in advance for any help I may receive and of course, feel free to get ahold of me anytime you feel like going exploring. "I've got military training, a giant crowbar, and I've already been shot. What can really stop me?" - Myself AnAppleSnail  Location: Charlotte, NC Gender: Male ALL the flashlights!  |  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 5 on 12/14/2010 8:07 PM >   I'm nowhere near the area. I suspect you'll find that each tunnel has its own purpose and isn't part of a huge network of continuous awesome tunnelage. But there'll be some good history and neat hidden places, so good luck. DJCraig and some of the East TN folks might be interested. Coley will go if you tell her that Al Capone was involved. Bouncewiggle likes going places, but Nashville's a bit far. Mr. Blue here might be into it. A lot of the central TN explorers don't seem to be active on UER. Achievement Unlocked TheWolfman269  Location: Nashville, Tennessee Gender: Male If it looks like a wolf, acts like a wolf, and howls like a wolf, it's probably an asshole.  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 6 on 12/14/2010 9:12 PM >   Well no. I don't imagine there to be a giant tunnel system under there... though that would be awesome! I'm just mind boggled that no one has ever really documented this or anything before. Lord only knows what all is underneath Nashville. I was a bouncer at alot of the clubs downtown and most all of those buildings, in the basement, are the original old stonework where the buildings were originally put together. Plus the Rabbi story is combining the supernatural and secret tunnels. Nerdgasm! Plus I was kind of hoping to get ahold of SaraBellum. From what I have seen skulking around here, she must live pretty close to me as her locations are all within easy driving distance for me to get to. Plus she has already gone into the old Tennessee Prison and I would like to discuss it with her before venturing out that way myself. "I've got military training, a giant crowbar, and I've already been shot. What can really stop me?" - Myself insanebuslady  Location: ? Gender: Male "You talkin' to me?"  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 7 on 12/14/2010 10:06 PM >   tldr <3 But from what I'm getting, if you're looking for comprehensive, interconnected tunnel systems, you will most likely be disappointed. In some of the worlds most major cities it's possible to travel large distances underground via different infrastructure/metro tunnels, but it's always comprised of a bunch of different systems. Here's a really good example, and not in a ridonculously large city either http://www.actions...g/underground.html tholcomb  Location: Chattanooga, TN Gender: Male Captain Baghead!  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 8 on 12/14/2010 10:12 PM >   tl;dr. I'm down for some tunnels after break. TheWolfman269  Location: Nashville, Tennessee Gender: Male If it looks like a wolf, acts like a wolf, and howls like a wolf, it's probably an asshole.  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 9 on 12/14/2010 10:14 PM >   Posted by insanebuslady if you're looking for comprehensive, interconnected tunnel systems, you will most likely be disappointed. I know. And that's not really what I'm looking for. It would be awesome to find but I'm not kidding myself thinking that is down there. I just want to go explore all of these tunnels that from what I can tell, no one has ever been brave enough to go down in them all the way and see where they go. It's a mystery that I intend to solve, even if I'm the only one out of the Scooby Gang going in. ;) "I've got military training, a giant crowbar, and I've already been shot. What can really stop me?" - Myself TheWolfman269  Location: Nashville, Tennessee Gender: Male If it looks like a wolf, acts like a wolf, and howls like a wolf, it's probably an asshole.  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 10 on 12/14/2010 10:17 PM >   Also, I apologize for it being so long but the trick to it is, I don't really know where any of the entrances are. I know of the ones that are in occupied buildings but don't for sure know how to get to them. Going to take some recon and some ninja skills. But as soon as I get something for sure, there will for sure be a new thread inviting folks along. This thread is mostly information gathering and passing on the information I have come across to see if anyone else can put together these clues and solve any more of the mystery than I. "I've got military training, a giant crowbar, and I've already been shot. What can really stop me?" - Myself SaraBellum  Berkshire Hunt Location: Villa Villekulla Gender: Female Coming to a cinema near you this summer.  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 11 on 12/15/2010 12:40 AM >   I just sent you a PM, but I wanted to let you know your Portia Rutledge story is highly amusing, but fake. Sorry. [01:47:56] <GreyDeath> Sara just stares her enemies into submission and eventually madness "You can either be wise or a bad-ass gangsta, but not both. You must choose your path." ~~metawaffle TheWolfman269  Location: Nashville, Tennessee Gender: Male If it looks like a wolf, acts like a wolf, and howls like a wolf, it's probably an asshole.  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 12 on 12/15/2010 1:32 AM >   Posted by SaraBellum I wanted to let you know your Portia Rutledge story is highly amusing, but fake. Sorry. ::sigh:: I figured as much but it's still fun to believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny, and low interest home loans sometimes. Oh well, I hear there is a prince in South Africa that just needs my bank account information to hide some money in. But regardless of that story, there are still tunnels to be investigated! Off to go read my PM's now... "I've got military training, a giant crowbar, and I've already been shot. What can really stop me?" - Myself Once-ler   |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 13 on 12/15/2010 7:14 AM >   The tunnels are there. Start out recon some of the oldest abandoned buildings downtown to find sealed entrances, but like was said before there is no vast network as each tunnel had its own purpose. Many towns had tunnels for many reasons but most seem to end up at the river. Athens GA has confirmed tunnels connecting many of the larger shops to the river. savannah GA is run through with tunnels. Good luck. SP.E.C.T.R.E. TheWolfman269  Location: Nashville, Tennessee Gender: Male If it looks like a wolf, acts like a wolf, and howls like a wolf, it's probably an asshole.  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 14 on 12/15/2010 6:30 PM >   I'm pretty sure my goal right now is to get into the one known prohibition tunnel. If I can't get permission from the Nashville Dinner Theater, I'm just going to try to find the other end at the Cumberland. The bank is not that big and if I start at Riverfront Park and work my way north, I'm bound to come across it. After that, I'll be trying to gain access to the ones in Hume Fogg. But if anyone knows of any others, I'll be more than happy to go diving through the Earth's crust to clear em. =) "I've got military training, a giant crowbar, and I've already been shot. What can really stop me?" - Myself Avius  Location: Washington DC / NOVA Gender: Male Wow you guys!  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 15 on 12/16/2010 4:13 AM >   The problem with scouting for tunnel entrances by the river is, if they haven't been maintained for decades, it is very likely that they've been filled in and /or collapsed by floods and the shifting riverbank. If they still exist physically, they may come out some distance from the river itself, probably in the side of a bluff or other elevation change- they'd have to be above the river level or they'd most definitely be flooded. Good luck, though. Try looking at the library for old maps. If they were smuggling tunnels they probably won't be on government maps, but they might have maps from other sources. Also searching newspaper clippings for ATF busts during prohibition might give you some leads. In places forgotten, tread where you will. -=- http://www.flickr.com/photos/avius/ mascarah  Location: Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania Gender: Female  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 16 on 12/16/2010 5:35 AM >   Posted by TheWolfman269 I know. And that's not really what I'm looking for. It would be awesome to find but I'm not kidding myself thinking that is down there. I just want to go explore all of these tunnels that from what I can tell, no one has ever been brave enough to go down in them all the way and see where they go. It's a mystery that I intend to solve, even if I'm the only one out of the Scooby Gang going in. ;) Never get the idea that no one has been there before you. Life and death are only temporary but freedom goes on forever. Find me on: Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr. TheWolfman269  Location: Nashville, Tennessee Gender: Male If it looks like a wolf, acts like a wolf, and howls like a wolf, it's probably an asshole.  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 17 on 12/16/2010 6:35 AM >   Posted by Avius The problem with scouting for tunnel entrances by the river is, if they haven't been maintained for decades, it is very likely that they've been filled in and /or collapsed by floods and the shifting riverbank. If they still exist physically, they may come out some distance from the river itself, probably in the side of a bluff or other elevation change- they'd have to be above the river level or they'd most definitely be flooded. Well, someone has wandered down this tunnel again since it was re-discovered and they at least know it runs to the river. So there has to at least be a hole big enough to be able to see the river through. And you would have to know what section of Nashville that I was talking about but there isn't really a bluff or anything. Now that part of Nashville DID flood alot this last year. But before then, the river has never really gotten up that high. I'll work on getting some pics up as soon as I get the chance to explore it a bit more. "I've got military training, a giant crowbar, and I've already been shot. What can really stop me?" - Myself WarBird69  Location: Eastern TN Gender: Male Atomic Bird of War  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 18 on 12/16/2010 11:04 AM >   I remember reading about some tunnels and/or old drains running under Vanderbilt, but I don't remember many other details. When twilight draws near, when you are pushed to the very limits of your soul, when it seems that all you have left are the dead remnants of the fabric of your life: -- BELIEVE Steed  Location: Edmonton/Seoul Gender: Male Your Friendly Neighbourhood Race Traitor  |  |  Re: Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? <Reply # 19 on 12/16/2010 11:26 AM >   This thread has renewed the disappointment I felt when I first heard that the Underground Railroad was mostly aboveground and didn't involve railroads that much. UER Forum > Archived US: Mid-Atlantic > Anyone know anything about tunnels in Nashville? (Viewed 2418 times) 1 2   All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire. To contact webmaster, or click to email with problems or other questions about this site: UER CONTACT View Terms of Service | View Privacy Policy | Server colocation provided by Beanfield This page was generated for you in 140 milliseconds. 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