[6] In late 2020, after a decade of stabilization work and restoration as well as access pathway construction, the tunnel was opened to visitors as a linear park.

The Blue Ridge Railroad was incorporated by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1849 with Claudius Crozet as chief engineer.

Its purpose was to provide a crossing of the Blue Ridge Mountains for the Virginia Central Railroad into the Shenandoah Valley.

A civil engineer of considerable skill, Crozet had identified the eventual route as early as 1839.

Rail service reached Charlottesville by 1851; westward, the railroad closely followed the alignment of the ancient Three Notch'd Road.

[7] With construction proceeding from either side a decade before the invention of dynamite, the complex was dug through solid granite with only hand drills and black powder.

[10] During the American Civil War, the infantry under Confederate General Stonewall Jackson earned the nickname "foot cavalry" by traveling very quickly across the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the consternation of the Union leaders opposing them.

[10] The Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel Foundation secured a $749,000 grant through the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Commonwealth Transportation Board to begin Phase I of the project to reopen the long-closed tunnel with a bike path and hiking trail.

In the fall of 2017, a University of Virginia assistant professor and two graduate students used a ground-based autonomous robot to scan and map the tunnel using LiDAR.

A Nelson County Parks and Recreation press release announced the Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel Trail system will open from sunrise to sunset.

The tunnel is also near the convergence of Skyline Drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Appalachian Trail, and U.S.