Skyline Drive, with its overlooks, waysides, picnic areas, campgrounds, and development areas, played a significant role in the history of the national park system and development of park road design, federal policies on conservation and recreation, and the employment relief measures of the New Deal, which included the Civilian Conservation Corps. Several hundred of Shenandoah NP’s structures are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. They include buildings such as Big Meadows Lodge, bridges, stone-lined ditches, culverts, log comfort stations, and retaining walls.
Skyline Drive was designed to blend naturally in with the topography of Shenandoah NP and provide overlooks, links to trails, picnic and campgrounds, waysides, and overnight accommodations at regular intervals. Its construction occurred in the 1930's.
Although the CCC did not actually build the road itself, they were responsible for grading the slopes on either side, building the guardrails and retaining walls, planting hundreds of thousands of trees and shrubs, making signs to guide visitors, and the construction of overlooks, trails, picnic areas and campgrounds, comfort stations, visitor and maintenance buildings. A more comphrehensive history of Skyline Drive with archival photos is available on the NPS website.
Today, when traveling down Skyline Drive, evidence of its historic significance is seen everywhere -- the picnic grounds found at Dickey Ridge, Elkwallow, Pinnacles, Big Meadows, Lewis Mountain, South River and Dundo, the pink mountain laurel planted by the CCC, the stone walls and log guardrails, Big Meadows Lodge. There are 4 entrances starting at the northernmost point of Skyline Dr. at Front Royal (near Rt. 66 and 340), Thornton Gap (Rt. 211), Swift Run Gap (Rt. 33), and ending at the southernmost point at Rockfish Gap (Rt. 64 and Rt. 250) which is also the northern entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The posted GPS coordinates will take you to the Harry F. Byrd Sr. Visitor Center at Big Meadows, midpoint on Skyline Drive, where the NRHP plaque is on display and you can view interactive displays of the history of Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park.