Secret Charlotte

The streets of Uptown Charlotte reveal a city of change. “It’s a very interesting mix. You’ve got seemingly turn of the century buildings and new modern,” said Dave Tessler who was visiting Charlotte from Toronto. “They have a lot of new attractions – restaurants,” said Charlotte resident Sheila Mcconeeyhead.

But, what about the Charlotte you don’t see? There’s something that helps keep part of Uptown going, that if you blink, you just might miss. It’s the entrance to a tunnel that’s 85 feet underground. It runs along the 500 block on Tryon Street.

“We came up with this concept where we would create a service entrance to the 500 block,” said Curt Radkin, a Senior Vice President with Wachovia, the company that built the tunnel. “So, there is literally no service entrance on the 500 block. It all kind of happens below the ground,” he said.

When it comes to tunnels in Charlotte, there are more than you may think. At the Charlotte Museum of History, they have documentation of a network of tunnels, created in the 1800s, that still exists under Uptown Charlotte.

“This really was, sort of, the epicenter of the gold rush,” said Museum Historian Leslie Kessler. A geological survey shows some of the main gold tunnels are underneath the area around Bank of America Stadium. “It’s kind of fun to think about that mystery layer that’s underneath Charlotte as people go about their everyday business today,” Kessler said.

There are also small tunnels in front of Piedmont Middle School just outside of Uptown. They have historical significance, although they’re not gold tunnels. “They are underground, for the students, years ago. They couldn’t cross the street to go over to Piedmont Middle School,” said Barbara Campbell who works nearby.

Charlotte is a city of history and innovation, both above and below ground.