Skyline Drive

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Skyline Drive near Big Meadow

This article refers to the road in Virginia. For other roads named Skyline Drive, see Skyline Drive (disambiguation).

Skyline Drive is a 105 mile (169 km) road that runs the entire length of the National Park Service's Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, generally along the ridge of the mountains. The bucolic drive is particularly popular in the fall when the leaves are changing colors. Annually, over two million people visit the Skyline Drive, which has been designated a National Scenic Byway.

Some of the entry points are:

Front Royal, Virginia (U.S. Highway 340), the northern terminus
Thornton Gap (U.S. Highway 211)
Swift Run Gap (U.S. Highway 33)
Rockfish Gap (Interstate 64, U.S. Highway 250), the southern terminus.

At Rockfish Gap, the Blue Ridge Parkway begins, and continues a similar path along ridge tops through Virginia and into North Carolina. [1]

Begun as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the Great Depression, construction of the Skyline Drive was both difficult and dangerous. Huge cuts were made into the sides of knolls and peaks to allow for a road wide enough to handle traffic. The work began in 1931, and the final section (from Swift Run Gap to Rockfish Gap) was completed and opened in 1939.

Since user fees are charged at entry points, the Skyline Drive is technically a form of toll road.

For history, and other information, see main article Shenandoah National Park