View of the right-of-way during clearing and grubbing, 1930s. During the clearing, all locust and cedar trees of 6" diameter or more were cut to board length and saved. (COLO)

SPLENDID SCENIC PASSAGE

During the fall of 1930, a survey of the area was undertaken by NPS engineer Oliver G. Taylor and NPS landscape architect Charles E. Peterson. Taylor and Peterson were directed to establish a proposed boundary for the park and a 500-foot wide right-of way for the parkway. Initial proposals called for the parkway to follow an inland route along colonial-era roads, but during a tour of the Naval Weapons Station, just north of Yorktown, Peterson decided to align the road along the York River. In Peterson's estimation, the grade crossings, extensive tangents, modern intrusions and other "visual junk" encountered along an inland route were incongnious with modern parkway design standards. Because of access restrictions and the extensive tidal wetlands through Navy lands, Taylor and Peterson mapped the river alignment using aerial photographs provided by Army navigators from Langley Air Base. Peterson's primary concern was designing a roadway that adhered to modern standards of parkway aesthetics developed by the builders of the Bronx River Parkway in Westchester County, New York. Tours of the Bronx River Parkway and the federally built Mount Vernon Memorial Highway provided Peterson with a model of a limited access highway with broad sweeping curves, set in a meticulously landscaped right-of-way devoid of commercial development. These features, derived from 19th-century romantic landscape theories, created a safer and more pleasant drive compared to the increasingly congested urban strips.

Parkway design began in the spring of 1931 with the creation of the Eastern Division of the Branch of Plans and Design under Peterson's direction. NPS landscape architects were responsible for the overall architectural and landscape treatment, but roadway and bridge construction specifications were prepared by engineers from the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), Department of Agriculture, under a 1926 interagency agreement. In 1931 a BPR field office was opened in Williamsburg to facilitate parkway construction. Special agreements with the Navy and private land owners transferred ten miles of the route between Yorktown and Williamsburg to the NPS free of charge, allowing construction to begin that spring. Despite this fortuitous start, design and routing conflicts, limited funding and war stretched construction over a 26-year period. By 1937 the road was completed only to Williamsburg. Except for the construction of the Williamsburg Tunnel and Halfway Creek Bridge, both constructed in the 1940s, it was not until 1955 that funds were available to extend the parkway to Jamestown Island in anticipation of the 350th anniversary of Jamestown's founding.

NPS landscape architect Charles Peterson (left) and his 1934 sketch of the C&O RR Underpass. (COLO)

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