Located near Greenwood in Albemarle County, Virginia, the tunnel was used by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) until its abandonment in 1944.

On March 5, 1849, the Virginia General Assembly passed an act to incorporate the Blue Ridge Railroad.

The route was planned to extend from a point near Blair Park at the eastern base of the mountains to Waynesboro in the Shenandoah Valley via Rockfish Gap.

[8] The tunnel continued to be used by the Virginia Central's successor road, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, until it was bypassed by a cut about 600 feet (180 m) long and 130 feet (40 m) deep in 1944, part of a series of improvements to accommodate increased wartime traffic and the increasing size of rolling stock.

Although the tunnel was abandoned, it was left in place beside the new cut and was sealed with concrete, in which state it remains to the present day.