Linn Cove Viaduct, North Carolina

The Linn Cove Viaduct is an unusual and superlative structure along the American roadway. It is a winding bridge hugging  the edge of Grandfather Mountain, and one of the last bits of the Blue Ridge Parkway to be completed. Construction on the 469-mile long Parkway started in 1935, and was mostly finished by 1966. The last seven miles around the mountain would take another twenty years. Instead of cutting into this especially steep edge of the mountainside around Linn Cove, as typically would be done by road engineers, it was decided, since this was a National Road in a National Park, to float the road above the ground.  The curvilinear viaduct was composed of precast segments, put in place by a crane that moved along the viaduct as it was being built, to minimize the impact of construction equipment on the ground below. The 153 interlocking segments connect to one another, and the whole is suspended by just seven piers over the 1,243 feet of the viaduct. It gives the driver a sense of flight, driving through this drive-through park.