Harry F. Byrd Bridge and the Blue Ridge Parkway

This bridge crossing the James River carries the name of Harry F. Byrd, the Virginia senator whose political influence helped shape some of the most consequential federal infrastructure of the twentieth century. Byrd served in the Senate from nineteen thirty-three to nineteen sixty-five, building one of the most powerful political machines in the South.

The dedication here credits him with the vision behind the Blue Ridge Parkway, the world's first rural national parkway, which runs four hundred sixty-nine miles through the Appalachian highlands of Virginia and North Carolina. The Parkway was built by the National Park Service during the Depression, connecting Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains. It was designed not for speed but for scenery, with no commercial traffic and sweeping views engineered at every curve. Completed after decades of construction, it has topped the National Park System in visitors in nearly every year since nineteen forty-six, drawing millions of drivers each year.