Spreading crushed stone over fresh oil on Crater Lake Rim Road.
Keeping Up With the Vacationers
After the establishment in 1933 of the national park system, the Bureau of Public Roads was called on to build roads in many of the areas as they were added to the national park system.
The development of the Nation’s highway transportation system had also brought a tremendous increase in recreational travel in the years following the close of World War II. Visits to the national park system mounted from a low of 6 million in 1942 to 33 million in 1950 and to 72 million in 1960.[1]
Providing an adequate road system serving each of the national park areas was an essential element of the development of each area. To accommodate the travelers, much work was necessary. For example, during the fifties, the Stevens Canyon Highway in the southeastern part of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington was completed. The Moran-Yellowstone Park approach road, between the Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, was also completed. In the eastern United States, the work included park road construction in the Acadia National Park in Maine, located on beautiful Mount Desert Island, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and in the new Everglades National Park.
The Mission 66 national park 10-year program had as a target date the completion by 1966 of the modernization of the national park system, now comprising 183 separate units. The upgrading of existing park roads and trails, construction of new park roads and construction on the eight national parkways administered by the National Park Service was a major part of this program. Special emphasis was placed on modernizing the Yellowstone National Park road system in anticipation of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Yellowstone Park in 1972.
One of the last transmountain highways of the West, reminiscent of the early twenties pioneer effort, was the North Cross State Highway in Washington, constructed during the 1960’s. After construction was substantially completed, the North Cascades National Park was established. The highway bisects the national park and is its principal access road. Important segments of the highway were designed and constructed as forest highway projects.
Throughout the national park system the unusual terrain features encountered, the necessity to preserve to the maximum extent the natural scene, the fulfillment of park objectives in constructing roads to points of special scenic interest, and to meet the requirements of other park objectives, challenged the best ingenuity of the highway engineer working with the landscape architect.
The Development of Parkways
A parkway differs from a park road in that the park road is within or leads to a national park or monument and is intended primarily to provide access to the national park without disturbing its beauty. On the other hand, the parkway was developed as a highway primarily for through traffic, excluding commercial vehicles, with full or partial control of access, and usually located either within a park or a parklike setting.
- ↑ R. Lee, supra, note 1, p. 38.
