taw Nations permitted construction of a wagon road through their lands. This old Natchez Trace was used by the early pioneers who rafted their produce from the Ohio and Cumberland River valleys via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans and then returned over the Trace to their homes.[1] It was also an important military route for General Andrew Jackson’s army of Tennessee volunteers during the war of 1812.[2] Today the Natchez Trace Parkway extends approximately 455 miles and is about 75 percent completed.
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Natchez Trace Parkway are covered here to show what is involved in establishing a national parkway. One additional parkway should be mentioned.
In 1930 Congress passed an act establishing a Colonial National Monument of the area which includes Jamestown Island, the 1607 site of the first permanent English settlement, and Yorktown, the scene of the culminating battle of the American Revolution in 1781. The Act also authorized the Secretary of the Interior to examine the feasibility of a parkway through the monument.
The Colonial Parkway, covering 23 miles from Yorktown to Jamestown Island via Williamsburg, Virginia, was opened to traffic in time for the 350th anniversary celebration of the founding of Jamestown.
Defense Access Roads
During the years of World War II, the normal construction of all highways was stopped, and many employees engaged in this work entered war service. A large contingent of direct Federal construction employees, particularly in the western districts, were assigned to the construction of the Alaska Highway. Others were engaged in the construction of roads to war establishments such as the Indian Head Access Road to the Naval Powder Factory and the military highway to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, which was later transferred to the National Park Service and renamed the Suitland Parkway. But aside from the Alaska Highway project, the biggest highway project undertaken during the years of the war was the building of the road system servicing the new War Department building constructed in Arlington, Virginia.
The Pentagon Road Network
In the summer of 1941, Congress appropriated $35 million to be used by the War Department for the construction of a new office building, now known as the Pentagon. The building was to provide office space for 40,000 workers, and in addition, other defense installations were planned in the immediate vicinity. The War Department requested the Federal Works Agency to undertake the layout and design and to supervise the construction of the highway network to service the new War Department building.
The Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi.
