Bland High School - Echo Yearbook (Bland, VA)

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Big Walker Mountain Tunnel Opens An event of great significance was the opening of the Big Walker Mountain Tunnel which is located entirely in Bland County and serves as a connecting device for the super highway Virginia Interstate 77 between Bland and Wytheville. This road project, one of the greatest undertakings of its kind, in the history of Virginia, was officially opened for traffic on June 29, 1972. Among the more than one thousand persons attending the colorful ribbon-cutting ceremonies at the south portals of the forty-two hundred foot twin tubes, were Virginia Governor, the Honorable Linwood Holton, and former Governor, the Honorable Mills Godwin, along with officials of the Great Lakes-to-Florida-Highway Association. This ceremony was the culmination of the ground-breaking for the mammoth tunnel which took place on October 16, 1967. James A. Williams, President of the Great Lakes-to-Florida-Highway Association, and Governor Linwood Holton cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony. 12

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There are some things in life that never change We love and hate, laugh and cry, win and lose, fight and surrender, but we never lose sight of the fond memories of our youth. They are as eternal and beautiful as life itself 14