Colonial Parkway

Story of the Byway

The Colonial Parkway is a twenty-three mile scenic roadway stretching from the York River at Yorktown to the James River at Jamestown. It connects Virginia's historic triangle: Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. Colonial Parkway is a meticulously crafted landscape that integrate's the region's natural and cultural resources into a memorial roadway of the American colonial experience. It marks an important change in the history of National Park Service (NPS) road-building traditions as the first NPS-designed parkway that unifies dispersed sites as part of a cohesive national park. Several million travelers a year use this route to enjoy the natural and cultural beauty of Virginia.

The Parkway's construction presented the National Park Service with a unique challenge: build a thoroughfare unifying culturally distinct sites crossing several pristine natural environments while still maintaining the National Park Service's prime directive "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same." Adding to the complexity of the project was a construction period extending over twenty-six years through the Depression, World War II, and funding shortages.

Parkway design began in the spring of 1931 with the creation of the Eastern Division of the Branch of Plans and Designs under NPS landscape architect Charles E. Peterson's direction. In 1931 a Bureau of Public Roads (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 the 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 1940's, 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.

The Parkway, completed in 1957, is an NPS success story. This roadway allows motorists to appreciate the surrounding landscape, while reducing impact on the resources and providing for traveler safety.