stream on a diagonal so as not to interrupt the flow of the interest of maintaining the most desirable route location. number of log structures to points along the road. roadway. Most of the tunnels were constructed with drilling Ironically, they removed a number of earlier frame houses "Jumbos," truck-mounted platforms equipped with because they did not meet their stereotypical vision of the Highways in Harmony After World War II, prices for masonry construction water-cooled drills. The drills would bore into the Appalachian past. increased sharply and new construction technologies substrata, after which the Jumbo would be removed and were available. Parkway planners began designing steel blasting charges would be placed in the holes. The For its own construction, parkway planners adopted their girder structures, prestressed concrete structures, and distinctive stone masonry portals on most parkway own variant of the prevailing "rustic style" of architecture concrete box girder structures though the rustic stone- tunnels were generally not part of the original construc­ adopted in the national parks. They wanted their own faced bridges were still occasionally employed. tion, but were added later, mostly in the 1950s and 1960s. structures to reflect the architecture of the region, and ELue Lvivige Parkway consequently took on the forms of cabins, sheds and VIADUCTS OVERLOOKS barns in order to enhance a "backwoods feeling." Virginia and North Carolina Viaducts are elevated roadway sections carrying the road Most of the parkway's 264 scenic pull-offs provide Structures would employ timber beam construction, high above dry ravines or across the shoulders of moun­ stunning vistas and panoramas of near and distant shake roofs, stone chimneys and exterior porches. Even The timber shelter at Craggy Gardens typifies the rustic tains where extensive and aesthetically unpleasing fill mountain scenery; local residents often called them the "driftwood gray" color was specified to present a style employed on the parkway. sections would otherwise be required. The earliest of "balconies" as they were just that, a place from which to weathered appearance. Parkway Virginia Route 89 is the only double arch bridge on the these is the Rocky Mountain Viaduct, constructed in 1937 take in the view. Other pulloffs provide parking to sweeping through parkway, 1996. Linville River Bridge, 1946. on the northern section of the parkway at milepost 35. allow motorists to inspect an interesting resource or take a Carolina rhododendron at Many of the grade separation structures appear to be old- This steel girder structure is supported by arched stone stroll on one of the parkway trails. The overlook BRIDGES Craggy Gardens, NC. Parkway entrance sign, inset, 1940. style stone arch bridges but are actually reinforced piers and stone-faced abutments, and is the only viaduct locations were carefully selected during the initial The most distinctive architectural feature of the Blue concrete structures. They were constructed by erecting Rocky Mountain Viaduct, 1996. to feature this treatment. Most other parkway viaducts reconnaissance surveys. Ridge Parkway is its outstanding collection of bridges and stone arch rings, abutments and spandrel walls, then are steel girder structures supported by grade separation structures, which allow the parkway to the type and appearance of the stone used in the work pouring concrete on a network of steel reinforcing rods. reinforced concrete or steel piers. There are two basic types cross streams or pass safely over or under other roads. varies from location to location. The stonework is not merely decorative, but serves as the of overlook. The primary Many of these 168 structures have a rustic stone type affords a picturesque form for the concrete frame. All but one of the Different arch shapes were employed, the choice being The dramatic Linn Cove Viaduct at appearance that blends well with the mountain vista, often carefully overpasses, or grade separation structures carrying dictated by the length of span and topographic milepost 304 was built to carry the landscape; others are sleek modern steel and reinforced framed by landscape roadways over the parkway, are stone-faced arch conditions. Most were segmental arches rising from parkway over the shoulder of concrete structures. Bureau of Public Roads engineers plantings. A second type structures. Many underpasses bearing the parkway over straight-sided abutment walls. The elliptical arch was Grandfather Mountain without and National Park Service landscape architects features interesting cultural other roads are stone-faced arch structures as well. occasionally used where there was sufficient horizontal sacrificing the beautiful mountain's collaborated on the design of the or natural resources, often clearance to carry the arch all the way to the ground, fragile terrain. This innovative parkway bridges. interpreted by a gunboard The stone facing for these structures was a hallmark of usually where the parkway intersected primary roads. structure, a segmental cantilever Many wayside sign or interpretive easel, The service station area at Doughton Park offers food, fuel the rustic style of architecture employed by the National Circular arches were employed for some narrower spans. structure erected using continuous areas interpret or provides access to a and camping supplies, ca. 1950. Park Service, which dictated the use of materials that Many bridges are curved or skewed, crossing a road or construction, was constructed of 153 pioneer life in precast concrete box girder segments hiking trail. The overlooks would enable structures to harmonize with their With few exceptions, even modern structures along the Appalachia, supported by post-tensioned box piers may be simple road Road cut and parapet wall at Devils Garden, NC, 1930s. environments. The stone was generally obtained from parkway, such as the 1989 Linn Cove Visitor Center or the including cast on site. The 1,250 foot structure widenings, "eyelid" quarries located near the construction site. In other 1999 Everhardt Headquarters Building at Asheville demonstrations. was completed in 1983 at a cost of overlooks with the parking continue to reflect pioneer architecture through their use The Blue Ridge Parkway (BLRI) was documented in 1996-97 by cases, stone was obtained from rock cuts created during nearly $10 million. The structure separated from the the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), a division of the construction of the roadway. As the parkway of native materials, allowing them to harmonize with the the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. This traverses several distinct geological areas attracted considerable acclaim by roadway by a planted or rugged landscape. recording project was cosponsored by the the Federal Highway over its nearly 500-mile length, engineers and the general public, and grassy island, or more the American Society of Civil elaborate spur or loop Administration's Federal Lands Highway Office, through the NPS Walkway beneath the James River Bridge, 1996. RECREATIONAL AREAS Park Roads and Parkways Program. The collection of drawings, Engineers soon designated it a roads away from the One of the key features that distinguishes the Blue Ridge photographs and historical reports is available through the Prints National Civil Engineering Landmark. parkway. Parkway from ordinary state and federal highways is its and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress. integral chain of recreational areas or parks, each with Picnic areas TUNNELS BUILDINGS unique features making them destinations in themselves. encourage This leaflet was produced by HAER in 2000-02 in cooperation Twenty-six tunnels carry the parkway through mountain The parkway preserves a variety of historic buildings, Facilities in the parks range from picnic areas and coffee motorists to stop The Blue Ridge Parkway winds near with the National Park Foundation. and enjoy a Doughton Park, North Carolina, 1950. Design by Todd Croteau, Richard Quin, and spurs and ridges. Twenty-five of these are in North either as interpretive exhibits or as picturesque roadside shops in the smaller areas, to campgrounds, restaurants Carolina; the Bluff Mountain Tunnel at milepost 53.1 is the features. With the exception of the imposing neoclassical and lodges and extensive hiking trail systems in the larger basket meal, Christopher Marston ca. 1950s. Text by Richard Quin Stone-faced culverts and bridges contribute to the only tunnel located in Virginia. The tunnels were often estate of textile magnate Moses Cone, the structures tend recreational areas. In addition to providing for outdoor Photographs dated 1996 by David Haas, HAER. parkway's rustic character. Top left: Virginia Route 460 constructed to reduce excessive landscape scarring that to be modest structures, mostly simple log cabins. The recreation, the parks function as service areas where All historic photographs dated 1950s and earlier Underpass; bottom left: Virginia Route 8 at Tuggle Gap, open cuts would entail, though in several cases they early parkway planners thought the log cabin symbolized motorists may obtain meals, purchase supplies for from the Blue Ridge Parkway Archives. 1996; above: Meadow Creek Culvert. Rustic south portal at Bluff Mountain Tunnel, 1996. enabled the parkway to cross through ridges in the pioneer Appalachia, and preserved or relocated a good picnics, or refuel their automobiles. appointed a planning team to bring the project to fruition. On located through their state. WARTIME other improvements including campgrounds, visitor centers, Nov. 24, 1933, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes approved the After more surveys and DELAYS lodges and coffee shops, and other public use facilities. construction of the new "Park-to-Park Highway" as a public intensive lobbying, By the outbreak works project. Secretary Ickes approved of World War THE MISSING LINK the Virginia-North II, over $20 By 1966, the parkway was more than 95% complete, but it Ickes authorized $4 million of public works funds to Carolina route. million had would take another two decades to complete the 7.7-mile begin construction and hired Stanley L. Abbott, a young been spent on "missing link" at Grandfather Mountain in North landscape architect with New York's Westchester County CONSTRUCTION construction. Carolina. The National Park Service made several parkway system, to oversee planning for the project. BEGINS Some 170 miles unsuccessful attempts to acquire the right-of-way, but the Abbott's role in the parkway's development was critical. The project's were open to landowner objected strenuously to proposals that he He promoted the concept of the parkway as a chain of authorization specified travel, and insisted would destroy the beauty of his large private parks and recreational areas, each a destination in itself. that the states would another 160 recreational area. A proposed plan to tunnel under a part He also suggested preserving views beyond the parkway purchase the land for the The CCC transplants a tree, ca. 1936. miles were in of the mountain likewise met with objections. In the 1970s boundaries through the use of scenic easements and parkway and the federal some stage of the Park Service and the presented the motorist with carefully crafted, ever- government would build construction. The onset of hostilities brought the work landowner finally agreed on changing pictures of Appalachian scenery and culture. the road. Following final largely to a halt. Construction funds were impounded, a route that would cause Abbott is remembered as the "father of the Blue Ridge field surveys, state land and many parkway employees left to join the armed minimal damage to Parkway." officers purchased the services. Use of the completed sections was very light due Grandfather Mountain's Packing explosives while smoking land for the right-of-way. to gasoline and tire rationing and a temporary ban on rugged terrain. A key a pipe, ca. 1935. Erecting stone facing for a bridge, 1935. "THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES" recreational driving. The suspension of the New Deal feature of this route was the The route of the new road had to be determined before On September 11, 1935, construction of the first 12.5-mile Progress Administration. The purpose of the WPA was to put relief programs stripped the parkway of its main forces revolutionary Linn Cove construction could begin. The original concept provided section began near Cumberland Knob in North Carolina. as many men to work as possible, so hand labor was used engaged in landscape and development work. At the end Viaduct, completed in 1983. The pastoral landscape at sweeping Belchers Curve is protected under scenic easements, 1996. for a road leading southwest from Shenandoah National Work in Virginia began the following February. The extensively, even when power equipment might have been of the war, the parkway had a difficult time converting Four years later, the entire The Blue Ridge Parkway is many things. It is the longest Depression. The Blue Ridge Parkway is all these things Park down the Blue Ridge into North Carolina, then parkway was not constructed as one continuous project, more efficient. WPA crews cleared brush, drilled rock with back to peacetime operations. Furloughed personnel route of the parkway, road planned as a single unit in the United States. It is an and more, so it should come as no surprise that this is the crossing the Unaka Mountains into Tennessee for the but instead was divided into 45 separate construction hand drills for blasting, and performed other manual labor. returned slowly. Much of the equipment had been extending 469 miles from elongated park, protecting significant mountain most heavily visited unit in the National Park System. final approach to the Great Smoky Mountains National units. This approach was necessitated by delays in Pay was low—$55 a week in the beginning—but the income declared surplus and turned over to the military, leaving Back Creek Bridge under construction, 1952. Shenandoah National Park landscapes far beyond the shoulders of the road itself. It Park. When field parties reported on several alternative acquiring land, but it also enabled parkway contractors to was a godsend for many mountain families. Another New the parkway short of cars, trucks and maintenance to the Great Smoky is a series of parks providing the visitor access to high "CREST OF THE BLUE RIDGE HIGHWAY" routes, North Carolina and Tennessee proponents began hire more people to work at the same time. Deal program utilized by the parkway was the Emergency equipment. Funds were difficult to obtain, and postwar MISSION 66 Mountains mountain passes, splendid natural "gardens" of flowering The Blue Ridge Parkway was not the first planned scenic to argue. North Carolinians, most notably the Asheville Relief Administration. ERA crews carried out landscape work construction proceeded slowly. By the mid-1950s, only about one-half of the Blue Ridge National mountain plants, waterfalls and water gaps, deep forests road through this mountain chain. In 1906, North Chamber of Commerce, wanted the southern section to For its first three years, the project existed under the and development at parkway recreational areas. The best- Parkway had been completed. Much of the remaining Park, was and upland meadows. It is a continuous series of Carolina state geologist Joseph Hyde Pratt proposed a stay in their state all the way to the Smokies, while authorization issued by Ickes in his role as federal public known public works program was the Civilian Conservation work involved difficult construction in more rugged opened to panoramic views, the boundaries of its limited right-of- scenic toll road down the spine of the Blue Ridge Tennesseeans demanded their promised share of the works administrator. For want of a better name, the Corps. Four CCC camps were established on or adjacent to terrain than earlier sections. Meager postwar public way rarely apparent and miles of the adjacent countryside Mountains from Marion, Virginia to Tallulah, Georgia. In road. Both states recognized the tremendous tourism project was generally called the "Appalachian Scenic the parkway, and their crews of young men toiled at roadside appropriations limited the extension of the road. The travel. seemingly a part of the protected scene. It is a "museum 1914, Dr. Pratt secured a charter for the "Appalachian potential of the road and lobbied hard to have the road Highway." Mountain folk watching its early construction cleanup, planting, grading slopes for scenic effect, and impetus for the completion of most of the remaining of the managed American countryside," preserving the Highway Company." Construction began between abbreviated this to "The Scenic." On June 30, 1936, improving roadside fields and forests. sections was a multi-year NPS development program roughhewn log cabin of the mountain pioneer, the Altapass and Pineola, North Carolina, but the outbreak of Congress formally authorized the establishment of the summer home of a textile magnate, and traces of early World War I brought the work to a halt. Today, a one-mile known as Mission 66. "Blue Ridge Parkway" and placed it under the jurisdiction Most relief programs were disbanded with the outbreak industries such as logging railways and an old canal. It is segment of the Blue Ridge Parkway between mileposts 317.6 of the National Park Service. of World War II. During the war, some landscape and miles of split-rail fence, moss on a wood shingle roof, and 318.7 follows the route of Pratt's road. Under this ten-year program, the pace of construction park development work was carried out by conscientious broomcorn and flax in a pioneer garden. It is the fleeting accelerated. In 1958, projects totaling $16 million were in NEW DEAL WORK PROGRAMS objectors organized under the Civilian Public Service -5 glimpse of a deer, a wild turkey or a red fox, or for those progress, an all-time record for the parkway. Most of the PARKWAY PROPOSED While most construction was carried out by private program. In recent years, Student Conservation who prefer their animal life less wild, herds of cows remaining gaps on the parkway were completed during Building the Construction of the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah contractors, a variety of New Deal public works programs Association and Youth Conservation Corps workers have grazing in pastures or horses trotting in fields. It is a the Mission 66 program. By its end in 1966, only 7.7 miles Linn Cove = National Park was the chief inspiration for the Blue Ridge played important roles in the parkway's development. completed valuable projects. o chain of recreational areas, offering motorists a spot to remained incomplete. In addition to roadway Viaduct. Parkway. Begun during the Depression as a public works Some roadway construction was carried out by the Works picnic in the woods, a place to sleep overnight in a project, the scenic mountain highway attracted Enjoying the view at Purgatory Mountain Overlook, 1952. construction, Mission 66 was responsible for numerous campground or a rustic lodge, as well as opportunities to tremendous attention. When President Franklin August 193$ September refuel their vehicle, enjoy a meal, or purchase a piece of Roosevelt visited the project in 1933, Virginia Sen. Harry 1906 January 1933 December 1933 1934 June 1936 1941 1946 1956-66 1983 September 1987 1996-97 "The Crest of the Blue Franklin Delano Roosevelt Roosevelt approves pjlan Project turned over to the The "War Between The 1935 The project is renamed Construction suspended due Work resumes after war, NPS "Mission 66" development Construe ion of the Linn The entire 469.9-mile parkway Historic American fine regional handicraft. It is the product of a series of F. Byrd recommended the roadway be extended inaugurated President at the for an "AppalachianJScenic National Park Service; States" results in a decision "The Blue Ridge Parkway.' to outbreak of war; 170 but tight appropriations Ridge Highway" Construct on begins near program pushes work towards Cove viaduct along is open for travel. Engineering Record major public works projects which provided a boost to height of the Great Depression. Highway" to connect Stanley Abbott appointed to route the southern miles of parkway is now limit the pace of construction. southwest to the new Great Smoky Mountains National proposed; work on this Cumberland Knob in North completion; at the end of Grandfather Mountain documents the Shenandoah and Grejat acting superintendent. portion of the parkway complete; 300 more remain the travel and tourism industry and helped the Park. Roosevelt eagerly endorsed the proposal, and the private toll road gets Carolina. project, only 7.7 miles remain closes the "missing link". parkway. underway in1914, but is Smoky Mountains national through North Carolina; no unfinished. unfinished. Appalachian region climb out the depths of the Great governors of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee halted by World War I. parks. route through Tennessee. The parkway loops over Buck Creek Bridge, 1942. Timeline