While work on the tunnels continued, the Virginia Central Railroad, eager to connect its eastern division to the line under construction in the Shenandoah Valley, developed plans to use temporary tracks to bypass the incomplete Blue Ridge Railroad. As was done over Rockfish Gap to the west, a temporary track approximately long was proposed by the Virginia Central Railroad's Chief Engineer, Charles Ellet, Jr., and constructed around the Brookville Tunnel as the digging continued. Due to the many setbacks and difficulties encountered, the tunnel was not completed until October 1856, just two months prior to the hole-through of the Blue Ridge Tunnel at the top of Rockfish Gap. Remarkably, with the exception of the cholera outbreak, no one was injured during the dangerous work completing the Brookville tunnel. The Virginia Central soon after began routing trains through the Brookville tunnel, avoiding the short temporary track.