Blue Ridge Parkway Revs Up for Year-Long 75th Anniversary Celebration
Tom Adkinson
November 06, 2009
ON AN APPALACHIAN RIDGETOP (November 2009) -- The 75th anniversary party that Great Smoky Mountains National Park began celebrating last January picks up new momentum this month when the Blue Ridge Parkway gets a jump on its own diamond anniversary.
These two venerable units of the National Park Service draw millions of visitors to the Southeast every year for sightseeing, hiking, scenic drives and other encounters with Mother Nature. The fun began for the Smokies in 1934 and for the parkway in 1935.
The Blue Ridge Parkway, an All-American Road as designated by the National Scenic Byways Commission, starts its party Nov. 12-14 in Cherokee and Asheville, N.C.
Festivities and activities continue until parkway lovers mark a commemorative weekend Sept. 10-12, 2010, in the Cumberland Knob, N.C., area. This is where work began on the 469-mile parkway. The parkway is a scenic link between Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which Tennessee and North Carolina share, and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
It traverses 29 counties and two major metropolitan areas (Roanoke, Va., and Asheville) and averages 16 million visits annually. This ridge-top corridor rises and falls in elevation from 649 feet at Virginia´s James River to 6,047 feet at Richland Balsam in North Carolina. It´s the highest and longest continuous route in Appalachia.
When you drive any portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway, you actually do more than just drive. You experience a quieter, gentler time, where landmarks are log cabins, split-rail fences and gristmills. Along the way, you can marvel as some spectacular engineering feats that make the parkway blend harmoniously with the mountain scenery.
Although parkway construction began in 1935, World War II interrupted work in the 1940s. Activity resumed in the 1950s and 1960s, and it was finished except for 7.5 miles in 1967. Completion came in 1987 with the opening of "the missing link," which included the 1,243-foot-long Linn Cove Viaduct at North Carolina´s Grandfather Mountain.
What we enjoy so much today originated as a New Deal project during the Great Depression. Work crews came from private contractors and the Bureau of Public Roads, and additional muscle came from the Civilian Conservation Corps, whose young men built campgrounds, picnic areas, trail shelters, waterlines and those oft-photographed split-rail fences.
You can start planning your trip with a visit to the parkway´s anniversary Web site BlueRidgeParkway75.org, and you can check what´s left on the calendar for Great Smoky Mountains National Park´s 75th anniversary at its dedicated site, GreatSmokies75th.org.
You can find leads on other travel in the region at EscapeToTheSoutheast.com.
These two venerable units of the National Park Service draw millions of visitors to the Southeast every year for sightseeing, hiking, scenic drives and other encounters with Mother Nature. The fun began for the Smokies in 1934 and for the parkway in 1935.
The Blue Ridge Parkway, an All-American Road as designated by the National Scenic Byways Commission, starts its party Nov. 12-14 in Cherokee and Asheville, N.C.
Festivities and activities continue until parkway lovers mark a commemorative weekend Sept. 10-12, 2010, in the Cumberland Knob, N.C., area. This is where work began on the 469-mile parkway. The parkway is a scenic link between Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which Tennessee and North Carolina share, and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
It traverses 29 counties and two major metropolitan areas (Roanoke, Va., and Asheville) and averages 16 million visits annually. This ridge-top corridor rises and falls in elevation from 649 feet at Virginia´s James River to 6,047 feet at Richland Balsam in North Carolina. It´s the highest and longest continuous route in Appalachia.
When you drive any portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway, you actually do more than just drive. You experience a quieter, gentler time, where landmarks are log cabins, split-rail fences and gristmills. Along the way, you can marvel as some spectacular engineering feats that make the parkway blend harmoniously with the mountain scenery.
Although parkway construction began in 1935, World War II interrupted work in the 1940s. Activity resumed in the 1950s and 1960s, and it was finished except for 7.5 miles in 1967. Completion came in 1987 with the opening of "the missing link," which included the 1,243-foot-long Linn Cove Viaduct at North Carolina´s Grandfather Mountain.
What we enjoy so much today originated as a New Deal project during the Great Depression. Work crews came from private contractors and the Bureau of Public Roads, and additional muscle came from the Civilian Conservation Corps, whose young men built campgrounds, picnic areas, trail shelters, waterlines and those oft-photographed split-rail fences.
You can start planning your trip with a visit to the parkway´s anniversary Web site BlueRidgeParkway75.org, and you can check what´s left on the calendar for Great Smoky Mountains National Park´s 75th anniversary at its dedicated site, GreatSmokies75th.org.
You can find leads on other travel in the region at EscapeToTheSoutheast.com.
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