Skyline Drive

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Mary Rock Tunnel
Such wooden posts are on the west side of the street (in the direction of travel south) and are numbered from 0 to 105 from north to south.
Skyline Drive view

The Skyline Drive is 169 km long tourist and scenic road through the Shenandoah National Park in the US state of Virginia . In the interest of the view, it leads along near the mountain ridges, 75 viewpoints are specially marked. The road is closed to freight traffic and has a continuous speed limit of 35 mph.

The road is particularly frequented in autumn when the leaves change color. The National Scenic Byway is used by two million people annually. The route leads through the national park from the northern starting point Front Royal on US Highway 340 to the southern end point at Rockfish Gap ( Interstate 64 and US Highway 250 ). On the way there are intersections with US Highway 211 at Thornton Gap and US Highway 33 at Swift Run Gap .

history

Skyline Drive emerged from a project by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression . For the difficult and dangerous construction, cuts first had to be made in the mountains in order to be able to build a road sufficiently wide for traffic. Construction work began in 1931, and the section from Rockfish Gap to Swift Run Gap was completed in 1939. The Civilian Conservation Corps were also involved in the construction. Among other things, they were busy setting up guard rails , setting up lookout points and planting many trees and bushes along the road.

As early as 1933, considerations began to extend the road south to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, some 700 km away . Construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway began in 1936, before the Skyline Drive was completed. It was severely delayed by World War II and a lack of funding and was not completed until 1987.

Skyline Drive was entered as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in April 1997 . Since October 2008 it has the status of a National Historic Landmark .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Skyline Drive Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places , accessed March 8, 2020.
  2. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Virginia. National Park Service , accessed March 8, 2020.