On March 5, 1849, the Virginia General Assembly passed an act to incorporate the Blue Ridge Railroad. This railroad was to construct a rail line over the Blue Ridge Mountains for the Louisa railroad (renamed as the Virginia Central Railroad in February 1850) from a point near Blair Park at the eastern base of the mountains to Waynesboro in the Shenandoah Valley via Rockfish Gap. Claudius Crozet was appointed as chief engineer of the Blue Ridge Railroad and developed a plan to cross the mountains using a series of four tunnels. The first tunnel from the east was the Greenwood Tunnel, built through a difficult and insecure ridge near Greenwood. Brookville tunnel was located west of the Greenwood Tunnel, also built through a small offshoot spur of the Blue Ridge Mountains.