Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG3

BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY VIRGINIA

469.1 Miles, Marked
and Ready

MP 95.3 | Pine Tree Overlook

The 469-mile roadway, begun in the 1930s as part of a Depression-era work project,
exists today as America's Favorite Scenic Highway, featuring not just a roadway, but
also visitor centers, hiking trails, lodging, interpretive programs and much more.

GUIDE

STAR CITY SKYCAMS - VISIT VIRGINIA'S BLUE RIDGE

okway
t
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m
o
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e
W ge Par
ue Rid

The Blue Ridge
Parkway's northern
end is at Milepost
0, on the crest of
Virginia's Afton
Mountain, accessible
from I-81. The
roadway's southern
end, at Milepost 469.1
is at Cherokee, North
Carolina, from U.S.
441. Stone posts mark
each mile.

Blue Ridge Parkway: A '30S SERENDIPITY

The combined forces of the Great Depression and a great vision for public spaces came together
in the 1930s to allow the building of a unique American treasure.

On the Cover

wo new national parks -
Shenandoah National Park
in Virginia and Great Smoky
Mountains National Park in
North Carolina and Tennessee -
needed a road to link them. The
Great Depression provided large
numbers of unemployed workers
as well as a pool of highly trained
but temporarily idled engineers
and landscape architects.
When young Stanley Abbott
was appointed resident landscape
architect for the new park-topark road, he converted 469
miles of hodge-podge mountain
land into the nation's most
famous rural national parkway,

He designed not only a parkway
but also a total recreation
program, incorporating visitor
centers, hiking trails, lodges,
campgrounds, milepost markers
and interpretive programs.
Construction of the Blue
Ridge Parkway began on
September 11, 1935, and was
built in sections that were then
connected.
In the wake of the
Depression, the Blue Ridge
region was economically
depressed, and the idea of a
paved road passing through this
relatively undeveloped region
appealed to many mountain

The "Tunnel Vision"
image was shot from
Ferrin Knob #2 Tunnel
at mile marker 401.3.
Blue Ridge Parkway
Photo by Reid
Callaway,
HisWorks
Photography:
reid-callaway.pixels.
com

residents.
One by one the road sections
and parks were completed until
only one unit - the route around
Grandfather Mountain in North
Carolina - remained unfinished.
After years of stalemate, the
park service masterminded a
compromised middle route using
state-of-the-art engineering
between the park service's "high
route" and the landowner's "low
route."
In 1987, when the Linn Cove
Viaduct was dedicated, the 469
miles were at last rendered into
one long, beautiful park through
the Southern Appalachians.

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Richard Wells
PRESIDENT
Steve Beyer
VP OF CLIENT SERVICES
Denise Koff
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Kurt Rheinheimer
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR
Janette Spencer

For Parkway closures (weather/maintenance): nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR
Patty Jackson
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
Mary McConaughy

LEISURE

MEDIA

Published in the United States by Leisure Media 360, 3424 Brambleton Avenue, PO Box 21535, Roanoke, VA 24018. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved. Every fact has been checked in order to ensure
that this book is as up to date as possible at press time. Details are subject to change, so please check ahead. The publisher accepts no responsibility for any consequences arising from the use of this
book. We welcome suggestions from readers. Please write to: BRPTG Editor, Leisure Media 360, 3424 Brambleton Ave., P.O. Box 21535, Roanoke, VA 24018.

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COORDINATOR
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BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY 3

http://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm

Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019