THE ZION-MOUNT CARMEL HIGHWAY

A road designed to go where no road—and few people—had gone before, the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway was the outgrowth of improvements in road-building technology, increased funding, and the persistence of the National Park Service and the Union Pacific Railroad,

In 1923, and again in 1925 and 1926, state engineer Howard Means and Bureau of Public Roads engineers B.J. Finch and R.R. Mitchell located and surveyed the improbable route up Pine Creek Canyon, through the Navajo sandstone cliffs to the eastern plateau, then across the slickrock country to join with U.S. Highway 89 near Mount Carmel.

Bored within the sandstone cliffs in 1927-28, Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel is the longest vehicular tunnel in the national park system. Brian Grogan, HAER, 1993.

The 25-mile project was a joint effort three years in the making. The National Park Service allotted $1.5 million to build the first 8.5-mile segment from today's North Fork Virgin River Bridge, up the talus slopes along Pine Creek in seven switchbacks, and through the cliffs with a 5,613' tunnel to the park's east boundary. This segment included the North Fork Virgin River Bridge, which was widened in 1960 but otherwise retains its historic integrity, and the beautiful masonry Pine Creek Bridge, which remains unaltered since its completion in 1930.

The State of Utah completed the remainder of the road to Mount Carmel Junction as a federal aid project at a cost of more than $400,000. This segment continued from the slickrock drainage of Clear Creek to the high plateau before dropping to U.S. Highway 89 just south of Mount Carmel, and featured the state-designed concrete Co-op and Clear Creek bridges, both replaced in 1993. With the supervision and engineering expertise of the Bureau of Public Roads, the result was a remarkable highway with scenic vistas and the longest vehicular tunnel in the western United States when it was completed in 1930.

Believed to be the only stone-masonry arch bridge designed by the BPR for the NPS, Pine Creek Bridge (1930) is a superb example of blending structures with the natural landscape. Todd A. Croteau, HAER, 1993.

The Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, a road segment between Utah Highway 9, completed the southwestern circle tourism route with a touch of engineering magic. It is useful to think of the circle's roads as evolving from Indian footpaths to pioneer wagon roads to well-engineered modern highways. The evolution has continued since 1932 with Interstate 15 replacing Highway 91 and the completion of Utah Highway 14 in the late 1950s. All of the circle roads have been realigned or widened and paved with asphalt, but the routes and scenery continue to thrill and bedazzle millions of annual visitors to the region's national parks, monuments and forests.

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