Photo courtesy of Birgit Kibelka.
History buffs on Feb. 28 explore a 150-year-old historic railbed that was cut through Pine Mountain and Shades Mountain in the 1860s and early 1870s. The area is known as Brock's Gap and today is in the city of Hoover.
The city of Hoover’s interest in building a new 4-mile parkway in western Hoover to facilitate development and relieve traffic congestion has sparked concern among some history buffs.
The proposal is to build a 4-mile road that would start at Morgan Road (Shelby County 52) and go north through a valley between South Shades Crest road and Stadium Trace Parkway, cross South Shades Crest Road near Brock’s Gap Parkway, connect with a proposed new Interstate 459 interchange and hook up with Ross Bridge Parkway at Alabama 150.
But some history buffs, particularly leaders of the Birmingham Historical Society, are concerned such a parkway might destroy a 150-year-old historic railway site known as the Brock’s Gap cut.
The Brock’s Gap cut is a former railbed site that stretches about a mile between the entrance of the Blackridge subdivision on Stadium Trace Parkway and a point just north of South Shades Crest Road.
The railbed hasn’t been used since 1908 but has extreme historical significance, according to the Birmingham Historical Society.
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Photos courtesy of Birgit Kibelka.
This is where the historic Brock's Gap railway cut connects with modern-day Stadium Trace Parkway just north of the Blackridge community in Hoover. The cut here is through what is known as Chestnut Ridge.
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Photos courtesy of Birgit Kibelka.
A narrow road sits on top of the historic South and North Alabama Railroad bed that cut through Shades Mountain in the late 1860s and early 1870s, leading to the creation of the city of Birmingham. This stretch was built with fill material to level out a valley between Shades Mountain and Pine Mountain and still has dropoffs on both sides of the pathway.
CREATING THE MAGIC CITY
The Brock’s Gap cut that runs through Shades Mountain, Pine Mountain and Chestnut Ridge was completed in November 1871. It made way for the final stretch of railroad tracks that led to the incorporation of the city of Birmingham a month later.
Since 1854, the South and North Alabama Railroad had been working to link Alabama’s capital city of Montgomery with the Tennessee River in north Alabama with 180 miles of new railroad tracks, but the biggest obstacle was getting through the hard sandstone rock in tall adjoining ridges that form the southern flank of Shades Mountain, according to the historical society.
The feat was completed in 1871 with the help of 111 convict laborers supplied by the state and more than $2 million worth (in today’s dollars) of black nitroglycerin powder to blast through up to a reported 75 feet of sandstone.
When the trains were finally able to get through the mountain, it opened up the mineral-rich terrain in central Alabama and allowed for easier transportation to the southern part of the state. The city of Birmingham incorporated in December 1871, with streets laid out parallel to the tracks of the South and North Alabama Railroad, and went on to become an industrial hub for the South.
“For our purposes, it’s a significant landmark site,” said Marjorie White, chairwoman of the Birmingham Historical Society board of trustees, referring to the Brock’s Gap railbed. “It’s an A No. 1 first-class site that could become a gorgeous greenway and amenity.”
What’s interesting is that the site is not familiar to many people because it’s on private property and not visible from any public roads, White said. There is a historical marker along Shades Crest Road, but the actual original cut can’t be seen from that location, she said.
Members of the Birmingham Historical Society toured the site in February along with members of the Brock’s Gap Training Center, a private gun range that is on part of the land where the cut is.
“We were just completely overwhelmed by what we found,” said Birgit Kibelka, a Hoover resident who is on the Birmingham Historical Society’s board of trustees.
White said some of the historic cut has been filled in, but much of the 1-mile stretch remains intact. “It’s just sort of pristine wilderness,” she said.
Part of the original railbed now contains a narrow, paved entrance road to the Brock’s Gap Training Center, and part of it is more natural, with the tracks removed and trees growing up where the tracks once were.
In some places, there are steep wall cuts up to 30 feet high, and in other places, the railbed was created with fill material in a valley, leaving steep drop-offs on the sides, according to the historical society.
“I can’t tell you how gorgeous it is,” White said.
Kibelka said the beauty of it is that the historic railbed could easily be turned into a greenway. Such a greenway could connect to other nearby historical sites, such as the Civil War-era coke ovens in Helena and other greenway systems near Hoover, White said.
But she and other members of the society are concerned the parkway the city wants to build in that vicinity would destroy the historic site.
History buffs explore a 150-year-old historic railbed Feb. 28 that was cut through Shades Mountain in the 1860s and early 1870s. The area is known as Brock's Gap and today is in the city of Hoover.
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Trees grow up on a 150-year-old historic railbed that was cut through Shades Mountain in the 1860s and early 1870s.
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PRESERVATION PRECEDENCE
Kibelka said there is a precedent for altering road designs to preserve historic sites in Hoover. When Hoover announced plans for development of the Ross Bridge community around 2000, a professor at Samford University approached the Friends of Shades Creek group to collaborate on pushing to preserve the historic Ross Bridge railroad culvert. When city officials and the development company became aware of the culvert, the main parkway leading to the development was realigned, and the development itself took on the name of the historic site, she said.
Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice acknowledged the Brock’s Gap railbed is indeed an important historical landmark not only for Hoover, but for Birmingham. Hoover officials support the idea of preserving it if possible, but it’s too early to tell if the location of the parkway would conflict with the railbed, he said.
While the city has produced a map that shows the parkway going through the same general area, that’s a very conceptual map, Rice said. The best location of the parkway won’t be determined until engineering work and surveys are done, taking into account geography, topography and the cost of potential routes, Rice said.
Survey work probably won’t be done for years because the parkway plan is very much dependent on the city’s efforts to get a new interchange for Interstate 459, Rice said. The city likely won’t spend money on engineering for the parkway until the interstate interchange is more certain, he said.
Also, it’s important to keep in mind that the Brock’s Gap railbed is on private property right now, which limits the city’s control of it, Rice said.
Much of the land is owned by Signature Homes, which is developing Blackridge, Lake Wilborn and other sections of Trace Crossings, and Signature has committed to donate the right of way it owns to help make the proposed parkway a reality, Hoover City Planner Mac Martin said.
This spring, Signature Homes sent legal notices to the Birmingham Historical Society, directing members of the group to stay off the company’s property. Efforts to reach Jonathan Belcher, the president of Signature Homes, for comment have been unsuccessful.
The Brock’s Gap Training Center also owns some of the historic site, and that is the last link the city needs to secure the path for the parkway, Martin said.
The city does have an interest in preserving some of the Brock’s Gap railbed, Martin said. He likes the idea of keeping at least part of it, but the city can’t make that guarantee, he said.
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GIS data and LIDAR imagery courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey.
This map shows about a 1-mile stretch of the historic Brock's Gap railbed, where the South and North Alabama Railroad cut through Shades Mountain, Pine Mountain and other adjoining ridges to open up a transportation route between Montgomery and north Alabama in the 1860s and early 1870s. Completion of the cut in November 1871 made way for the incorporation of the city of Birmingham in December 1871. Map courtesy of Birmingham Historical Society.
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Map provided by Birmingham Historical Society and includes map material in the city of Hoover’s comprehensive plan.
This map shows about a mile of the historic Brock's Gap railway cut in red. It's where the South and North Alabama railroad blasted a path through Shades Mountain, Pine Mountain and adjoining ridges and valleys to open up a transportation route between Montgomery and mineral resources in north Alabama in the 1860s and early 1870s. The map also shows a proposed four-mile parkway (in yellow) between Morgan Road (at the bottom of the map), across South Shades Crest Road to a proposed new Interstate 459 interchange. The parkway also would extend to the north of the interstate and connect with Ross Bridge Parkway at Alabama 150.
STRIKING A BALANCE
City officials have to strike a balance between preserving history and serving the needs of today’s residents, Martin said.
“We’ve got to have traffic relief over there,” he said. “We’ve got to have another way in and out of Trace Crossings, particularly as development comes along. The parkway provides that relief and diverts traffic off South Shades Crest. That’s needed to serve our residents.”
Traffic congestion is one of the top two or three concerns identified in the city’s comprehensive plan, especially for residents in western Hoover, Martin said.
John Stewart, a retired civil engineer and Riverchase resident who specialized in transportation planning, said he has no doubt the new parkway is needed. “It just would be nice if it doesn’t obliterate this piece of history,” he said.
If any federal money is involved in construction of the parkway, the project likely would require an environmental assessment that would include consideration of the historic railbed, he said.
Stewart is a lifelong railroad buff who created a website about railroads and industries around Birmingham called bhamrails.info.
Birmingham was founded at the juncture of two railroads, and without the Brock’s Gap cut, Birmingham’s development certainly would have been hindered, Stewart said.
Other railroads later came to Birmingham by different routes, but the Brock’s Gap cut played a huge role in the development of Birmingham as an industrial hub for the South, he said. “I think it would certainly be a shame to have it just disappear.”
