After 52 years of construction, the Blue Ridge Parkway was completed in
September 1987. Ground was broken on September 11, 1935 at Cumberland Knob,
North Carolina, and all but 7.5 of its 469.1 miles were constructed by 1967.
During the intervening twenty years, this final section - which skirts the
rugged and rocky perimeter of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina - presented
state and federal officials with a number of obstacles that were solved with
perseverance and innovation.
National Park Service landscape architects and Federal Highway Administration
engineers agreed the road should be elevated, or bridged, where possible to
eliminate massive cuts and fills. Figg and Muller Engineers, Inc. developed the
bridge design and construction method. The result: the Linn Cove Viaduct
at milepost 304.6, the most complicated concrete bridge ever built, snaking
around boulder-strewn Linn Cove in a sweeping "S" curve.
