Pikeville: the city that moved the mountain
The town of Pikeville is located in the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky. There are only less than 7 thousand people living there — however, they may be the most important people on the planet.
It infuriated them that they had to wait at a railway crossing while coal wagons spitting black dust passed by. They were infuriated that their Levisa Fork River overflowed its banks every year and flooded their city. So they decided to undertake the largest project in the entire Western Hemisphere to move the earth, second only to the Great Boston Tunnel and the Panama Canal.
Residents of the city of Pikeville razed the mountain and created a kilometer-long tunnel 400 meters wide called the Pikeville glade. They let a four-lane highway, railway tracks and a river through the tunnel. Thanks to a federal grant of $77.6 million, these seven thousand residents now do not breathe coal and keep their feet dry all year round.
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