Historic Roads in the National Park System

Cover

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Early Roads

The Development of Park Roads

Teamwork/Cooperative Efforts

Evolution of Parkways

World War II and Beyond

Understanding and Managing Historic Park Roads

Bibliography

Historic Roads in the National Park System

ROAD DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE 1920S AND 1930S

By the mid-1920s, Hull and Vint spent a good deal of their time concentrating on park roads. The usual method in which they cooperated with the Bureau of Public Roads was that the NPS landscape engineer worked with the Bureau of Public Roads survey crews in the initial layout of the road. In all matters regarding aesthetics and scenery, the National Park Service had the upper hand.

Vint's landscape architects began feeding their road designs to the Bureau of Public Roads engineers for inclusion in roads projects. Vint's men completed tighter specifications for stonework on bridges, guardrails, and culvert headwalls, and designs for loop developments such as turnouts and picnic areas. They supervised the selection of borrow pits, selected stone to be used in construction, and ensured the preservation of scenery and the parks natural resources. The National Park Service strengthened regulations on blasting and burning to preserve the natural features.

In 1929 the Landscape Division developed a standard list of general provisions that could be incorporated into the specifications for many projects. They contained general standards for masonry work, they prohibited excavation through blasting despite the fact that it might save time, and they stressed landscape preservation. The Park Service called for restoration of any landscape features or timber harmed by the contractor. [123]

By the early 1930s the National Park Service and the Bureau of Public Roads had completed a number of outstanding projects including the Wawona Road and tunnel at Yosemite, Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, Going-to-the-Sun Highway (Transmountain Road) at Glacier National Park, Colonial Parkway, the Red Lodge-Cooke City Road, and the General's Highway between Sequoia and General Grant National Parks. Skyline Drive at Shenandoah had been started, and the road up Cadillac Mountain at Acadia had been surfaced. In 1930 Director Horace Albright noted that year:

is important in the annals of this division as the year in which the fruits of its labors to protect the roadside and the natural landscape generally during road and trail construction became definitely apparent, to the casual visitor as well as to the specialist. There is now a distinct contrast between carefully planned park roads and other plans on a strictly engineering basis. The cooperation of the road engineers aided greatly in achieving this result. [124] The Bureau of Public Roads also recognized that the agreement between the two agencies had been successful.

Albright made improvement of roads and trails one of his priorities when he became Director, and he was able to convince Congress of the necessity. [125] Albright summarized his philosophy on road development as follows:

in each park the outstanding natural feature, which probably...was the reason for the creation of the park, has been or is being made available to everybody, and I think this exception is absolutely necessary. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, for instance, should be seen by all whether they be well and strong and capable of taking long walks afoot and making long rides on horseback, whether they be very old or very young, whether they be sick. The same thing can be said of Old Faithful Geyser, the Big Trees of California, the Yosemite Valley, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. The outstanding natural features, not duplicated anywhere else in the world, all are entitled to see and any policy that contemplates the exclusion of the public from these places could never long be maintained.

During 1932 Louis Crampon, special attorney to the secretary of the interior, summarized the regulations and policies governing national parks. He cited that national park areas maintained as such should have features of outstanding scenic, scientific; or historical value and "the resultant national interest in its preservation." Among the other topics he discussed were recreation, administration, and management:

Recreation in its broadest sense, includes much of education and inspiration. Even in its narrower sense, having a good time, it is a proper incidental use. In planning for recreation use of the parks, in this more restricted meaning, the development should be related to their inherent values and calculated to promote the beneficial use thereof by the people . . . . Such administration must deal with important problems in forestry, road building and wild life conservation, which it must approach from the angles peculiar to its own responsibilities ... in road building, the route, the type of construction and the treatment of related objects should all contribute to the fullest accomplishment of the intended use of the area .... Safe travel is to be provided for over suitable roads and trails .... Roads, buildings, and other structures necessary for park administration and for public use and comfort should intrude on the landscape or conflict with it only to the absolute minimum. [127]

Fig. 16. At Glacier National Park the construction of the Transmountain Road, better known as the Going-to-the-Sun Highway, was an accomplished feat of engineering in the roughest terrain ever encountered by the Bureau of Public Roads and the National Park Service. The road skimmed along the edge of the mountain in a gradual lift up and over Logan Pass. (Rocky Mountain Regional Office, n.d.)

Fig. 17. Edging the Going-to-the-Sun Highway and protecting autotourists from driving over the precipitous edge was a standard type no. 2 guardrail developed by the National Park Service. The crenellations added texture and relieved the monotony of the wall surface in the rugged mountain environment. (Rocky Mountain Regional Office, n.d.)

AN OMINOUS VIEW OF THE FUTURE

Despite all of the boosterism and pushes for increasing tourism in national parks, several people looked into the future and spoke ominously of what they saw. By the mid-1930s private citizens were noticing that too much development was destroying the High Sierra. Nearly all of the members of the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco voted in favor of a resolution that declared:

That California's undeveloped high mountain areas have been reduced dangerously near to a minimum for the welfare of the state, and that no further intrusions by the building of roads should be allowed without convincing proof of public necessity.

Even as early as 1922 Robert Sterling Yard stated that "while we are fighting for the protection of the national park system from its enemies, we may also have to protect it from its friends."

Fig. 18. After a steep climb through the foothills above the San Joaquin Valley, the General's Highway that connected Sequoia National Park and General Grant (later Kings Canyon) National Parks skirted along the western slope of the Sierra at the 7,000-foot level. The road was still under construction in this photograph. (National Archives, Record Group 79)

Fig. 19. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the General's Highway from Sequoia National Park to General Grant National Park took place at the Clover Creek Bridge on June 23, 1935. The bridge itself was a masterpiece of rustic design. (National Archives, Record Group 79)

SUMMARY

The signing of the interbureau agreement between the Bureau of Public Roads and the National Park Service in 1926 established the procedures for the working relationship between the two bureaus. The National Park Service continued its responsibilities overseeing the aesthetics of park roads, while the bureau continued advancing in road engineering. The development of standardized specifications and construction details in the Branch of Plans and Design ensured a uniform quality in the parks built environment. Park road design had advanced to the level of master work, and the agency accomplished what it set out to do: increase visitation. Even during the 1920s and 1930s, however, some small voices forecast problems that the roads might bring.

Road construction in Yellowstone during the 1880s was a crude process that showed little concern with aesthetics or resources. By the 1920s, the design vocabulary for park roads had developed to a point that a big effort was put into naturalizing the landscape. Switchbacks were replaced by radial curves where possible. Stone-faced bridges with rampant arches curved gracefully over their spans and incorporated the superelevation of the road. Stone headwalls on culverts and stone guardwalls became commonplace. By the early 1930s standardized plans with standard slopes and guard walls were readily incorporated into park road design. This standardization of road construction features were developed by the National Park Service and reviewed by the Bureau of Public Roads. At the same time, new road construction included the review and comment from a variety of disciplines within the Park Service, including geologists, wildlife biologists, botanists, and interpreters. Prior to World War II, the Park Service began taking a more holistic approach to road development.

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Last Modified: Mon, Aug 23 2004 10:00:00 pm PDT
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