BackRoads: Blue Ridge Parkway

America’s Favorite Drive 469 Miles 2 or 3 days. Waynesboro, VA to Cherokee, NC

The Blue Ridge Parkway is much more than just a scenic byway with many natural attractions; it is also a cross-section of Appalachian mountain history. All along the Parkway are overlook signs, visitor center exhibits, restored historic structures and some of the best photo opportunities in the entire country.

The Blue Ridge Mountains get their distinctive and characteristic blue color from the hydrocarbons released into the air by the forests. As the vegetation changes along the Appalachian Chain the characteristic color becomes more diverse. The changes in the predominant vegetation give the neighboring Smoky Mountains their distinctive “smoky” look.

Great care was taken to design and build the roadway in a manner that would allow it to blend into its natural surroundings and to have the least environmental impact on the region. Before construction on the Blue Ridge Parkway was ever begun, a landscape architect traveled the length of the proposed roadway and planned for each view, each overlook, and each parking area. As a result, there are breathtaking vistas and close up looks at the forest around each turn of the road. Although with the limited space in this article we can’t hope to match the excitement and constant beauty of driving on the motor road we are publishing a limited number of pictures in the hope that you might be inspired to go and see for yourself.

The Parkway was begun during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration as a project designed to put people back to work and to stimulate the economy during the Great Depression.

The first decisions were that the states would be responsible for securing the land necessary for their sections and then would turn the land over to the federal government. The federal government would build the highway and administer the area as a National Park. It was also decided that the route would follow the crest of the Appalachian Mountains through Virginia and North Carolina.

Construction got underway in 1935 after two years of planning. Progress was slow at the start as the surveyors worked deep into the mountains and realized the enormous task that lay ahead. Many of the existing roads were little more than ruts and could not support the construction equipment needed. Snakes, rocky terrain and extreme weather conditions further hampered their efforts. The road building went forward in segments as land was acquired and rights of way approved.

In the final design the Parkway required that 26 tunnels be blasted through mountain ridges and dozens of bridges had to be built over the rivers and creeks. Elevation of the Parkway ranges from 600 feet at the James River in Virginia to over 6,000 feet at the land Balsam overlook in North Carolina.

Progress was steady until interrupted by WWII when funds had to be diverted to the war effort. In the 50’s and 60’s...

We hope that you enjoyed reading this excerpt from "Blue Ridge Parkway". If you would like to read the entire article and more, you can order a back issue of Mar / Apr 2006 where this article was originally published.

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