The
Hempfield Road Tunnel located on Wheeling's east side is a
tunnel with a dark and mysterious past.
The tunnel runs
underneath the Old Peninsula Cemetery, that is now called the
Manchester cemetery. The Hempfield Railroad Company began
looking around for a point in this hillside to build a tunnel
rather then go around the hill. The only thing that stood in
the way was the hill and the old Peninsula cemetery. The
council interdicted any further interments in it and
appointed a 
committee whose duty it should be to buy a new ground for a
cemetery, and
to remove the dust of those lying in the old one. They didn't move
all of the graves. The photo at the right of the page is what is
left of the cemetery above the tunnel. The removals were made
to the Mount Wood, New present Peninsula, Manchester and East
Wheeling Cemeteries in the greater
Wheeling Area. Some reports have stated that many of the graves
were robbed by the railroad workers during the construction of the
tunnel. Some of the ghosts spotted by the trainsmen who used to
work this route are said to be the spirits of those buried in the
cemetery. Another ghost seen at the tunnel is the spirit of an
immigrant worker killed by a friend for the small amount of money
he carried. Different witnesses often similarly describe him as a
figure that floats above the train tracks, trying to scream and
putting his mangled hand in front of his face. A woman in a dark
cape is said to be seen standing at one of the tunnel's ends. In
addition, frightened locals doing research on Old Peninsula
Cemetery, report they have spied the ghost of a woman in a black
cape. The researchers report that she stands on her own grave, as
if guarding it. The intelligencer in July 1869 stated that three
ghost sightings were "confirmed." in 1874 a New York journalist
claimed to have seen an apparition floating in the
tunnel.
Note: An exception has been granted by Groundspeak Inc. for this
cache placement.