The Blue Ridge Parkway Celebrates Its 75th Anniversary
Asheville, N.C. – The Blue Ridge Parkway, an All-American Road as designated by the National Scenic By-ways Commission, will mark its 75th anniversary with celebrations, events and symposia along the parkway beginning November 13-14, 2009, in Cherokee and Asheville, North Carolina, and culminating with a commemorative weekend September 11, 2010, at Cumberland Knob, North Carolina, where construction of the road began in 1935. Considered a national treasure, the 469-mile Parkway connects Shenandoah National Park in Virginia with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina.
Parkway Mission
The Parkway’s mission is to preserve the natural scenery and resources along its rural Southern Appalachian route, as well as provide recreational opportunities for the public and a glimpse into the cultural heritage of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was constructed as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Great Depression, with both private contractors as well as workers from the Bureau of Public Roads, and was the first national rural parkway to be developed for the new American pastime of leisure road trips. Additional laborers from the Civilian Conservation Corps built campgrounds and picnic areas, trail shelters, rail fences and waterlines. The CCC also cleared overlooks and assisted with landscape plantings.
Managed by the National Park Service, the Parkway traverses 29 counties and two major metropolitan areas – Roanoke, Virginia, and Asheville, North Carolina – and averages 17 million visits annually. This ridge-top corridor actually rises and falls in elevation from 649 feet at Virginia’s James River to 6,047 feet at Richland Balsam in North Carolina and is the highest and longest continuous route in the Appalachian area.
Economic Impact and Achievements
The Parkway, offering public access to spectacular views of forested mountains and rural landscapes, is estimated to have an economic impact of $2.3 billion each year on the communities through which it passes. Recognized internationally as a notable achievement of both landscape and engineering design, the Parkway also plays a vital role in preserving a biologically diverse environment with a wide range of flora and fauna, including rare and endangered plant and animal species. In fact, the Blue Ridge Parkway has more diversity of habitat and supports more plant species than any other park in the United States National Park System.
The five mountain ranges of the Parkway corridor include the oldest mountain building processes in the world. This national park also stands at the summit of many local and regional watersheds defining the hydrological patterns of much of the eastern United States.
Visitors to the Blue Ridge Parkway will also experience multiple examples of rural Appalachian life, from log cabins to split-rail fences and gristmills. Scenic easements restricted development but allowed for the continuation of traditional agriculture. In other locations, adjoining national forests or state parks preserve the scenic quality of the Parkway experience and in many cases, creates the impression the Parkway’s boundary extends as far as the eye can see.
Also along the corridor, travelers can enjoy established recreational areas, including Peaks of Otter, Rocky Knob, Doughton Park and Mount Pisgah locations. Hiking, fishing, camping and picnicking are all popular Blue Ridge Parkway activities.
Although the Parkway was started in 1935, construction was interrupted by World War II in the 1940s. The remainder of the road was built in the 1950s and 1960s with the exception of the route around the ecologically fragile slopes of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. After years of negotiating and dispute, the Blue Ridge Parkway was completed with the opening of the Linn Cove Viaduct in 1987.
The Parkway and the Future
Today, the Blue Ridge Parkway faces challenges in preserving its scenery and natural resources due to commercial and residential encroachment, air and water quality issues, and a lack of sufficient funding – all posing a threat to this valuable and vulnerable corridor. Fortunately, the Parkway has actively engaged advocates working with land conservation organizations to ensure the continued preservation of this magnificent scenic by-way.
For more information on the Blue Ridge Parkway’s 75th anniversary, visit www.blueridgeparkway75.org
###
Contact
Leesa Brandon
828-271-4779 x 224
lbrandon@nccommerce.com
Elizabeth Sims
828-777-9493
elsims@aol.com
