Blue Ridge Country May/June 2020 - BPG5

469.1 Miles,
Marked and Ready

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 (MP).

GUIDE

MAP FOR ALL 469 MILES

6 FUN ITINERARIES
to Do
with 77 T hings

34
GREAT
Events for 2020
SERVICES
DIRECTORY

On the Cover

We're near the Thunder Hill
Overlook on the Blue Ridge
Parkway at Milepost 290.4
in North Carolina, as the
road heads away from that
overlook toward the north.
Photography by
Nicholas Moore.

LEISURE MEDIA 360

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.

wo new national parks
- Shenan-doah 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-to-park 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,

The 469-mile roadway, begun in
the 1930s as part of a Depressionera 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.
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

For Parkway closures (weather/maintenance):

nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm

FOUNDER & CEO
Richard Wells
VP OF CLIENT SERVICES
Denise Koff
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Kurt Rheinheimer
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR
Janette Spencer
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR
Patty Jackson
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
Mary McConaughy
ADVERTISING
COORDINATOR
Tomara Nixon

LEISURE

MEDIA

Published in the United States by Leisure Media
360, 3424 Brambleton Avenue, PO Box 21535,
Roanoke, VA 24018. Copyright 2020. All rights
reserved. Every fact has been checked in order to
ensure that this book is as up to date as p- ossible
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 w- elcome suggestions
from readers. Please write to: B- RPTG Editor, Leisure Media 360, 3424 -Brambleton Ave., P.O. Box
21535, Roanoke, VA 24018.

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Welcome to
HERMOSA DRONES | STOCK ADOBE

4 BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY

mountain 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 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.
Today the parkway
welcomes about 15 million
people each year.

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MP 304 | Linn Cove Viaduct Bridge

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

Blue Ridge Country May/June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country May/June 2020