Completed in 1987, the Viaduct remains one of the most elegant solutions to an environmentally formidable problem, yet designed by the hand of man. This section of roadway, which seems suspended in midair as it hugs the southern face of Grandfather Mountain, was the centerpiece of the last 7.5-mile section of the Blue Ridge Parkway to be completed. And for good reasons.

The problem: how to design and build a roadway at an elevation of 4,100 feet without permanently disfiguring one of the best-loved landmarks of the Southern Appalachians. Ultimately, in order to avoid the cuts and fills associated with conventional road construction, engineers devised a way to build the 1,243 ft. long S-curve from the top down. Incredibly, the only construction that occurred at ground level involved the seven massive piers that support the structure.

So sensitive were the project engineers to the structures of environmental design that the only trees cut were those directly beneath the roadway. Even the concrete was pigmented to harmonize with the natural aspect of Grandfather’s craggy face.