The Linn Cove Viaduct |
The Blue Ridge Parkway winds over ridge tops and through hill bordered
valleys as it traverses two states, 29 counties, three national forests,
and the Qualla Boundary Cherokee Indian Reservation.
For 71 years this jewel of a roadway, the futuristic dream of astute
statesmen and landscape architects, has merged beauty and utility.
According to North Carolina historian Harley Jolley, the economic
emergency of the Great Depression brought about the “conversion
of 500 miles of ordinary country side into a thing of eye-catching
beauty.”
A joint project of Virginia, North Carolina, and the federal government,
the nation’s first rural highway was conceived in order to link
the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. In December
of 1933, approval and funding were given to what was referred to as
a “make-work project” by the National Park Service. The
dire economic times precipitated the need for federally assisted employment
through the National Recovery Act of the same year. In 1928, the North
Carolina Tax Commission listed the average cash income for farms in
the mountain region as approximately $86 annually.
Survey parties were in the field by 1934 and the first rocks were
blasted from the mountains of Virginia to begin construction in September
1935. The labor force employed to build that first 12.5 mile stretch,
as well as future strips of Parkway, was recruited from relief and
unemployment rolls of the county where work was done. By the end of
1936 more than 133 miles of the proposed 469 were under construction
with priority given to sections where economic relief needs were the
greatest. It is interesting to note that it was not until June of
1936 that, after heated debate, Congress finally authorized the Parkway
and President Franklin Roosevelt signed the bill, which became Public
Law. Construction of the roadway continued unabated until the coming
of World War II.
Within the first three decades of the twentieth century, mass-produced
gasoline powered automobiles had revolutionized transportation. Roads
were built in direct routes to be commercially useful. Parkways were
a special kind of road designed and constructed for the pleasure of
travelers. The Blue Ridge Parkway was unique in that it held conservation
and restoration as primary factors in building the road and restoring
the natural beauty of the often ravaged landscape. Legions of workers
from the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC), the Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC), and other labor programs, moved trees, tons of soil,
and provided the bulk of hand labor necessary to build the early portions
of the road. The overworked, often eroded landscape that resulted
from clear cutting done earlier by timber companies, as well as dense
forest where no road had gone before was transformed.
In order to provide Parkway travelers with the distinctive mountain
vistas, an innovative new program was actualized—that of land
leasing. Once the surrounding countryside was revitalized, sections
were leased to neighboring farmers. The leasing party was provided
with soil, seed, fertilizer, as well as conservation education. The
narrow corridor of right-of-way along the 500-mile strip of park land
needed the assistance of each leaseholder. Soil improvement practices
were required and spread with the pioneering program and have been
maintained through the years, adding to the unique beauty of the Parkway.
“Scenic Easement” of the surrounding landscape provided
a means of controlling the visual periphery of the Parkway.
During the early part of the twentieth century, ecology, economy and
aesthetics were not priorities of many individuals, much less federal
agencies. However, the National Park Service, a part of the Department
of Interior, was fortunate to have Stanley W. Abbot working for the
Blue Ridge Parkway as Acting Superintendent and Resident Landscape
Architect. Abbot embraced a futuristic vision of the Parkway and worked
to facilitate the creation of what he described as a “museum
of managed countryside.” In addition to landscape restoration
and management, Abbot incorporated the use of native rough-cut stone,
based on the “mountaineers’ use of stone.” Abbot’s
dominant working theme was to “marry beauty to utility.”
The natural beauty of the stonework on retaining walls, tunnel facings,
bridges, and even gutters, blend with the surrounding land.
Bridges are perhaps the most noticeable stonework to the passing motorist.
The Parkway’s bridges were built faced with native stone obtained
from quarries near the road work. Rock common to the region consisted
of: granites, gneisses, diorites, schist, and slates. Italian and
Spanish master stonemasons were brought into the work force to assist
in the construction of these long lasting, functional structures.
Over half a century later, these bridges still display the engineer’s
utilitarian design coupled with the pleasing beauty of arched stonework.
From Rockfish Gap, Virginia to Oconaluftee River, North Carolina,
the Blue Ridge Parkway runs for 469 miles that are just as beautiful
to the traveler today as in years gone by
Get Firefox