This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement". Amazon has updated the ALB and CLB so that customers can continue to use the CORS request with stickness. This cookie is used for load balancing services provded by Amazon inorder to optimize the user experience. In addition to certain standard Google cookies, reCAPTCHA sets a necessary cookie (_GRECAPTCHA) when executed for the purpose of providing its risk analysis. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The best times to visit the bridge are in early April, shortly after the Monteith Park boat ramp opens for the season, and again in late October and November when the lake level is low enough to walk 1000 feet along the shoreline to the bridge.Įven though Monteith Park is closed December thru March, you can also see the bridge any time throughout winter from the pull-off on Buckner Branch Road, across the river. One of those bridges spans Lands Creek, which flows out of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park just west of the municipal boat ramp. This annual drawdown exposes many remnants of the flooded communities including the concrete bridges along highway 288.
Also, above Fontana’s north shore, other portions of old 288 still exist as hiking trails.Įach winter, the Tennessee Valley Authority lowers the lake level 50 to 60 feet for spring flood control and to perform routine maintenance on the dam. And at Bryson City, the easternmost section of 288 follows the Tuckasegee River west for almost three miles before reaching the lake at the municipal boat ramp. The westernmost 10 miles survived with a portion becoming part of the current NC 28 near Fontana Dam. Read the fascinating Story Behind “The Road to Nowhere” Soon, everything that defined their lives disappeared under the rising waters of the 10,230-acre reservoir, including Highway 288.Ī replacement road was promised but never completed, leaving a six-mile dead-end highway sarcastically known as “The Road to Nowhere”. To make way for progress, families were forced to sell their homes, farms and businesses and move elsewhere. What To Know Before You Go GPS Coordinates: (35.459063, -83.But in 1944, the creation of Fontana Lake had a devastating effect on those communities. Today, you can drive up Lakeview Drive, park your car right before the tunnel, and walk through the tunnel to the other side. In 2010, the federal government agreed to pay Swain County $52 million for the failure of completing the road.
Why? According to the federal government, they found environmental issues with rocks leaking acid that made them permanently halt construction of the 30-mile road with only 1/5 of it completed.
After driving 6 miles from Bryson City, you'll come to a 1/4 mile tunnel through the mountains. Lakeview Drive was created, and plans were in place were in place for it to connect Bryson City and Fontana, 30 miles away.Ĭonstruction of Lakeview Drive ended abruptly ended in the early '70s, leaving Bryson City residents with a Road To Nowhere. One of the stipulations of the agreement between Swain County and the federal government was that the government would replace the road that was flooded with a new road. Many residents of the area were forced to leave before the area was flooded. Actually, it's more like a tunnel to nowhere.Īccording to Bryson City's Chamber Of Commerce, in the '30s and '40s, the federal government received a huge tract of land from Swain County for the creation of Fontana Lake and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Road To Nowhere is just that, a road to nowhere.
0 kommentar(er)
