We’re always up for an adventure. So when we heard there was a “secret“ tunnel in Jacksonville, we had to go find it!
The company Anderson works for has been looking at moving to another building in Jacksonville, and one of the real estate agents they worked with mentioned that there’s a tunnel under JTB (J. Turner Butler Boulevard) connecting an office complex to the St. John’s Town Center. I read somewhere that the tunnel is actually an old cattle crossing trail! When JTB (a state highway) was first constructed they were required to build the tunnel to get cattle from the pasture where the office park is to the pasture where the Town Center is without interfering with traffic. A friend who worked for the Department of Transportation said this is all true and that the state has spent millions on cattle crossings like this over the years.
Anderson knew Kingston would love checking it out, so we went on a search. The St. John’s Town Center is a larger outdoor shopping center that we frequent quite a bit. 🙂 So during one of our last trips to the area we decided to drive around looking for this tunnel. We found the opening on the Town Center side behind Costco. But there’s a lot of construction going on – imagine that – so it was hard to get to it. Instead, we drove over to the office park and found the other side of the tunnel.
It was really cool! And also kind of gross – like a tunnel should be. 🙂
If you want to check it out, here’s how to find it: Put “CEVA Logistics” in your GPS, and when you get to the parking lot go to the right of the building and park as far in the back as you can. You should be able to see the tunnel opening right behind a retention pond. There’s a sidewalk that goes from the office complex, under the tunnel, and to the Town Center – so it’s easy to walk around and explore!
Spring Break is coming, and summer won’t be far behind! So if you need to get your little people out of the house, this is a fun adventure. Add it to your list!
