Mysterious tunnel unearthed in Tennessee, video shows. ‘Hopefully, there’s no mummies’

Construction workers recently unearthed a mysterious, forgotten tunnel in Tennessee, and it’s raising a lot of questions: What was it used for? How old is it? Is it haunted?

The Tennessee Valley Authority wants answers, and decided exploring the eerie concrete corridor was the perfect job for a drone -- citing the potential dangers of stomping around inside old, abandoned infrastructure.

“Hopefully, there are no mummies,” the TVA said in an Oct. 29 Facebook post.

Video shared by the TVA shows the drone slowly cruising down the dark tunnel, pushing through thick cobwebs, hovering up to a narrow staircase that ascends to a dead end, and panning back to the gap where workers broke through.

The structure measures 40-feet long and 10-feet wide, according to the TVA.

There weren’t any mummies, but plenty of spider webs, mice and “creepy crawlies.”

The tunnel was discovered beneath the TVA’s own Norris Engineering Labs, the agency says. Despite that, researchers aren’t really sure what the purpose of the abandoned tunnel was, and everyone had apparently forgotten it was there.

There were “no records or indications of its existence until now,” the TVA says.

“This drone footage is the first time anyone’s seen the inside of the tunnel since it was closed up, likely 30 to 40 years ago, if not more,” Cindy Light, Norris Consolidation Project manager, said in a news release.

Researchers believe the tunnel was likely constructed in the 1930s.

The TVA will continue to investigate in cooperation with the State Historic Preservation Office, the agency said

“When working in legacy space, especially a historic R&D site, there is always an element of the unknown,” Light said. “It’s also really interesting to be a part of as we are literally uncovering history while working to preserve it at the same time.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 4:18 PM with the headline "Mysterious tunnel unearthed in Tennessee, video shows. ‘Hopefully, there’s no mummies’."