The Story Behind North Carolina’s Most Famous Bridge Will Astound You
The most famous highway bridge in North Carolina has an interesting story to tell. From its method of construction to how it came to be, the famous Linn Cove Viaduct is fascinating beyond the way it curves into the hillside or the incredible views you can admire as you drive over the road.
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The 1,243-foot bridge known as the Linn Cove Viaduct snakes around North Carolina's Grandfather Mountain. It is perhaps the most photographed part of the Blue Ridge Parkway as it passes through North Carolina.
But the backstory indicates there may never have been a famous Linn Cove Viaduct — if not for the longstanding holdout of Hugh Morton, who refused to allow the parkway to divide his mountain. He had a private tourist attraction up there and held that splitting up his land would hurt his business. That private attraction, by the way, was Grandfather Mountain.
So the engineers got busy plotting a way to get around Morton's mountain — and the rest is history. The last segment of the NC portion of the parkway was begun in 1979 at an estimated cost of $10 million.
The groundbreaking construction involved setting into place 153 50-ton concrete segments onto footing supports. Each one of the 50-ton concrete segments was precast at an indoor facility just to the south of the bridge.
It took eight years to complete the Linn Cove Viaduct. The new bridge officially opened in 1987. If you want to visit, there's an overlook just to the north with a path that leads along the highway back to Linn Cove Viaduct.
Just to the south, the National Park Service maintains a staffed Visitors Center with facilities. At the far end of the parking lot you'll encounter an entrance onto the Tanawha Trail, which travels from Beacon Heights all the way to Julian Price Park. Along the way, it travels under the Linn Cove Viaduct and offers an upclose look at this fascinating structure.
Robin Jarvis is a travel writer and editor for OnlyInYourState.com with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. Her love for travel has taken her to many parts of the world. She's lived in the Carolinas for nearly three decades and currently resides in Charleston. When she's not working, she loves to cook with friends and check out new adventures. General questions and FAM tours: rjarvis@onlyinyourstate.com.
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