 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 1 @.@ 5 miles ( 2 @.@ 4 km ) west of the Greenwood Tunnel , also built through a small offshoot spur of the Blue Ridge Mountains . 
