Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Among America’s most treasured national landmarks, few offer the combination of natural beauty, history and accessibility that’s found along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Stretching 469 miles from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina, the parkway is among the most visited destinations in the National Park System.
“The Blue Ridge Parkway was created to be that quintessential drive along the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains,” said Carolyn Widner, CEO of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.
Designed as a scenic experience, the parkway was built without billboards and with minimal signage, keeping the landscape as the focus.
Construction began in 1935, during the Great Depression, eventually winding through 29 counties across Virginia and North Carolina.
The project was especially important to Asheville, which had long promoted itself as a tourist destination but was struggling economically during the Great Depression.
“There were people, especially in Asheville, who really were eager for something like this to happen,” said Dr. Anne Mitchell Whisnant, a historian at Duke University.
The parkway offered a vision for the future: bring travelers back to the mountains and give local communities a new economic lifeline.
By the mid-to-late 1950s, sections of the parkway had begun connecting, transforming the roadway into a destination visited by tens of millions of people over the decades.
Then, in September 2024, Helene brought unprecedented destruction to western North Carolina. The entire parkway was forced to close, creating another economic blow for mountain communities that rely heavily on tourism.
“When Helene hit, the entire parkway shut down,” Widner said. “For a lot of our mountain towns, their economic lifeline is the parkway.”
The storm caused 57 landslides along the scenic mountain road, with many concentrated between Mount Mitchell and Spruce Pine.
Today, the Blue Ridge Parkway encompasses more than 93,000 acres and is managed by the National Park Service.
For Whisnant, the parkway represents something larger than a scenic road.
“I think one of the greatest things we ever did — 100 years ago, 110 years ago — was to decide to set aside public land for public access. What an extraordinary idea,” she said.
#america250 #blueridgeparkway #tourism #history
MORE: wlos.com/news/america-250/blue-ridge-parkway-history-asheville-north-carolina-helene-tourism-scenic-drive
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WLOS ABC 13 News serves the Asheville, NC area and the rest of western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. We keep our audience informed through local news, weather forecasts, traffic updates, notices of community events, sports and entertainment programming since 1954.
This video and all Sinclair Broadcast Group content archives of local news and sports coverage are available for your use. For more information contact us at contentsales@sbgtv.com
Among America’s most treasured national landmarks, few offer the combination of natural beauty, history and accessibility that’s found along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Stretching 469 miles from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina, the parkway is among the most visited destinations in the National Park System.
“The Blue Ridge Parkway was created to be that quintessential drive along the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains,” said Carolyn Widner, CEO of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.
Designed as a scenic experience, the parkway was built without billboards and with minimal signage, keeping the landscape as the focus.
Construction began in 1935, during the Great Depression, eventually winding through 29 counties across Virginia and North Carolina.
The project was especially important to Asheville, which had long promoted itself as a tourist destination but was struggling economically during the Great Depression.
“There were people, especially in Asheville, who really were eager for something like this to happen,” said Dr. Anne Mitchell Whisnant, a historian at Duke University.
The parkway offered a vision for the future: bring travelers back to the mountains and give local communities a new economic lifeline.
By the mid-to-late 1950s, sections of the parkway had begun connecting, transforming the roadway into a destination visited by tens of millions of people over the decades.
Then, in September 2024, Helene brought unprecedented destruction to western North Carolina. The entire parkway was forced to close, creating another economic blow for mountain communities that rely heavily on tourism.
“When Helene hit, the entire parkway shut down,” Widner said. “For a lot of our mountain towns, their economic lifeline is the parkway.”
The storm caused 57 landslides along the scenic mountain road, with many concentrated between Mount Mitchell and Spruce Pine.
Today, the Blue Ridge Parkway encompasses more than 93,000 acres and is managed by the National Park Service.
For Whisnant, the parkway represents something larger than a scenic road.
“I think one of the greatest things we ever did — 100 years ago, 110 years ago — was to decide to set aside public land for public access. What an extraordinary idea,” she said.
#america250 #blueridgeparkway #tourism #history
MORE: wlos.com/news/america-250/blue-ridge-parkway-history-asheville-north-carolina-helene-tourism-scenic-drive
_______________
Follow WLOS on social media:
WLOS ABC 13 News on Facebook: facebook.com/News13
WLOS ABC 13 News on X: https://x.com/WLOS_13
WLOS ABC 13 News on Instagram: instagram.com/wlos_13
Subscribe to WLOS on YouTube: youtube.com/user/ABC13Channel/?sub_confirmation=1
For all of the day’s top local and national news, visit wlos.com
Stream our newscasts LIVE: wlos.com/watch
Have a news tip? Send it directly to us:
Email us: news@wlos.com
Call the Newsroom: 828.684.1340
--
WLOS ABC 13 News serves the Asheville, NC area and the rest of western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. We keep our audience informed through local news, weather forecasts, traffic updates, notices of community events, sports and entertainment programming since 1954.
This video and all Sinclair Broadcast Group content archives of local news and sports coverage are available for your use. For more information contact us at contentsales@sbgtv.com
