Scenic route
Encyclopedia
A scenic route, tourist road, tourist route, theme route, or scenic byway is a specially designated road or waterway that travels through an area of natural or cultural beauty. The designation is usually determined by a governmental body, such as a Department of Transportation
or a Ministry of Transport.
as particularly suited for tourists. Tourist highways may be formed when existing roads are promoted with traffic sign
s and advertising
material. Some tourist highways such as the Blue Ridge Parkway
are built especially for tourism purposes. Others may be roadways enjoyed by local citizens in areas of unique or exceptional natural beauty. Still others, such as the Lincoln Highway in Illinois are former main roads, only designated as "scenic" after most traffic bypasses them. In the USA this type of roadway is commonly termed a scenic highway.
, a scenic route may also refer to a type of special route of the U.S. highway system that travels through a particularly beautiful area. These special routes, which boast "Scenic" banners are typically longer than the "parent route". There are only two routes in the country that remain with the official scenic designation: U.S. Route 40 Scenic
and U.S. Route 412 Scenic.
Within the United States, there is also the National Scenic Byway
program which designates portions of existing roads as scenic byways due to some unique characteristics.
were developed in the late 19th Century by landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted
and Beatrix Farrand
as roads segregated for pedestrians, bicyclists, equestrians, and horse carriages, such as the Eastern Parkway and Ocean Parkway
in Brooklyn, New York. The terminology "parkway" to define this type of road was coined by Calvert Vaux
and Frederick Law Olmsted in their proposal to link city and suburban parks with "pleasure roads." Newer roads such as the Bidwell and Lincoln Parkways in Buffalo, New York
were designed for automobiles and are broad and divided by large landscaped central medians. Parkways can be the approach to large urban parks, such as the Mystic Valley Parkway
to Boston Common in Boston. Some separated express lanes from local lanes, though this was not always the case.
During the early 20th century, the meaning of the word was expanded to include controlled-access highway
s designed for recreational driving of automobiles with landscaping
. These parkways originally provided scenic routes without at grade intersections, very slow vehicles, or pedestrian traffic. Their success led to more development however, expanding a city's boundaries, eventually limiting their recreational driving use. The Arroyo Seco Parkway between Downtown Los Angeles
and Pasadena, California
is an example of lost pastoral
aesthetics. It and others have become major commuting routes, while retaining the name parkway.
the U.S. federal government constructed national parkway
s designed for recreational driving and to commemorate historic trails and routes. These divided four-lane parkways have lower speed limit
s and are maintained by the National Park Service
. An example is the Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC) built Blue Ridge Parkway
in the Appalachian Mountains
of North Carolina
and Virginia
. Others are: Skyline Drive
in Virginia
; the Natchez Trace Parkway
in Mississippi
, Alabama
, and Tennessee
; and the Colonial Parkway
in eastern Virginia's Historic Triangle
area. http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/special_sections/parkway/parkway1.html. The George Washington Memorial Parkway
and the Clara Barton Parkway, running along the Potomac River
near Washington, D.C, were also constructed during this era.
system has 50 miles (80.5 km) of streets designated as parkways. These are not freeways, having a slow 25-mile per hour speed limit, pedestrian crossings, and stop signs.
bulb fields, Swiss
Mountains, to Norwegian
Fjords. Subjects can be architectural, historical, or cultural.
Examples of theme routes:
Department of Transportation
The Department of Transportation is the most common name for a government agency in North America devoted to transportation. The largest is the United States Department of Transportation, which oversees interstate travel. All U.S. states, Canadian provinces, and many local agencies also have...
or a Ministry of Transport.
Tourist highway
A tourist highway or holiday route is a road which is marketedMarketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
as particularly suited for tourists. Tourist highways may be formed when existing roads are promoted with traffic sign
Traffic sign
Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of roads to provide information to road users. With traffic volumes increasing over the last eight decades, many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified and standardized their signs to facilitate international travel...
s and advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
material. Some tourist highways such as the Blue Ridge Parkway
Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. It runs for 469 miles , mostly along the famous Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains...
are built especially for tourism purposes. Others may be roadways enjoyed by local citizens in areas of unique or exceptional natural beauty. Still others, such as the Lincoln Highway in Illinois are former main roads, only designated as "scenic" after most traffic bypasses them. In the USA this type of roadway is commonly termed a scenic highway.
United States
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, a scenic route may also refer to a type of special route of the U.S. highway system that travels through a particularly beautiful area. These special routes, which boast "Scenic" banners are typically longer than the "parent route". There are only two routes in the country that remain with the official scenic designation: U.S. Route 40 Scenic
U.S. Route 40 Scenic
U.S. Route 40 Scenic is a scenic route of U.S. Route 40 in the U.S. state of Maryland. US 40 Scenic is the old alignment of US 40 over Town Hill in eastern Allegany County and Sideling Hill in far western Washington County. The highway was originally constructed as part of the National Road in...
and U.S. Route 412 Scenic.
Within the United States, there is also the National Scenic Byway
National Scenic Byway
A National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the United States Department of Transportation for its archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and/or scenic qualities. The program was established by Congress in 1991 to preserve and protect the nation's scenic but often...
program which designates portions of existing roads as scenic byways due to some unique characteristics.
Parkways
The first parkways in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
were developed in the late 19th Century by landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
and Beatrix Farrand
Beatrix Farrand
Beatrix Jones Farrand was a landscape gardener and landscape architect in the United States. Her career included commissions to design the gardens for private residences, estates and country homes, public parks, botanic gardens, college campuses, and the White House.Farrand was one of the founding...
as roads segregated for pedestrians, bicyclists, equestrians, and horse carriages, such as the Eastern Parkway and Ocean Parkway
Ocean Parkway (Brooklyn)
Ocean Parkway is a broad boulevard in the west central portion of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City.-Route description:Ocean Parkway extends over a distance of about five miles , running almost north to south from the vicinity of Prospect Park to Brighton Beach...
in Brooklyn, New York. The terminology "parkway" to define this type of road was coined by Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux , was an architect and landscape designer. He is best remembered as the co-designer , of New York's Central Park....
and Frederick Law Olmsted in their proposal to link city and suburban parks with "pleasure roads." Newer roads such as the Bidwell and Lincoln Parkways in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
were designed for automobiles and are broad and divided by large landscaped central medians. Parkways can be the approach to large urban parks, such as the Mystic Valley Parkway
Mystic Valley Parkway
Mystic Valley Parkway is a short parkway in Arlington, Medford, Somerville, and Winchester, Massachusetts. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and forms part of Route 16....
to Boston Common in Boston. Some separated express lanes from local lanes, though this was not always the case.
During the early 20th century, the meaning of the word was expanded to include controlled-access highway
Controlled-access highway
A controlled-access highway is a highway designed exclusively for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow and ingress/egress regulated...
s designed for recreational driving of automobiles with landscaping
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
. These parkways originally provided scenic routes without at grade intersections, very slow vehicles, or pedestrian traffic. Their success led to more development however, expanding a city's boundaries, eventually limiting their recreational driving use. The Arroyo Seco Parkway between Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
and Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
is an example of lost pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
aesthetics. It and others have become major commuting routes, while retaining the name parkway.
'New Deal' parkways
In the 1930s, as part of the New DealNew Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
the U.S. federal government constructed national parkway
National parkway
National Parkway is a designation for a protected area in the United States. The designation is given to a scenic roadway and a protected corridor of surrounding parkland. National Parkways often connect cultural or historic sites.-See also:...
s designed for recreational driving and to commemorate historic trails and routes. These divided four-lane parkways have lower speed limit
Speed limit
Road speed limits are used in most countries to regulate the speed of road vehicles. Speed limits may define maximum , minimum or no speed limit and are normally indicated using a traffic sign...
s and are maintained by the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
. An example is the Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
(CCC) built Blue Ridge Parkway
Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. It runs for 469 miles , mostly along the famous Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains...
in the Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. Others are: Skyline Drive
Skyline Drive
Skyline Drive is a 105-mile 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 scenic drive is particularly popular in the fall when the leaves are changing colors...
in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
; the Natchez Trace Parkway
Natchez Trace Parkway
The Natchez Trace Parkway is a National Park Service unit in the southeastern United States that commemorates the historic Old Natchez Trace and preserves sections of the original trail....
in Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, and Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
; and the Colonial Parkway
Colonial Parkway
Colonial Parkway is a scenic 23-mile parkway linking the three popular attractions of Virginia's Historic Triangle of colonial-era communities, Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown...
in eastern Virginia's Historic Triangle
Historic Triangle
The Historic Triangle is located on the Virginia Peninsula of the United States and includes the colonial communities of Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown, with many restored attractions linked by the Colonial Parkway in James City and York counties and the City of...
area. http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/special_sections/parkway/parkway1.html. The George Washington Memorial Parkway
George Washington Memorial Parkway
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, known to local motorists simply as the "G.W. Parkway", is a parkway maintained by the U.S. National Park Service. It is located mostly in Northern Virginia, although a short section northwest of the Arlington Memorial Bridge passes over Columbia Island,...
and the Clara Barton Parkway, running along the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
near Washington, D.C, were also constructed during this era.
Post-war scenic parkways in the U.S.
In Minneapolis, the Grand Rounds Scenic BywayGrand Rounds Scenic Byway
The Grand Rounds Scenic Byway is a linked series of park areas in Minneapolis, Minnesota that takes a roughly circular path through the city. The corridors include roads for automobile traffic plus paths for pedestrians and bicycles, and extend slightly into neighboring cities...
system has 50 miles (80.5 km) of streets designated as parkways. These are not freeways, having a slow 25-mile per hour speed limit, pedestrian crossings, and stop signs.
Theme routes
Theme Routes are special theme-based tours, aimed at providing a visitor or tourist with a better insight on that theme. Being popular in Europe, they can cover anything from an individual city, a wine growing region, DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
bulb fields, Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
Mountains, to Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
Fjords. Subjects can be architectural, historical, or cultural.
Examples of theme routes:
- Bergstraße
- Bertha Benz Memorial RouteBertha Benz Memorial RouteThe Bertha Benz Memorial Route is a German tourist and theme route in Baden-Württemberg and member of the European Route of Industrial Heritage...
- Castle RoadCastle RoadThe Castle Road is a theme route in southern Germany and a small portion in the Czech Republic, between Mannheim and Prague.It was established in 1954...
- Cheese RouteCheese RouteThe Cheese Route is a holiday route in north Germany, which links cheese-producing businesses in the state of Schleswig-Holstein.Because cheese dairies are spread over the entire state, the Cheese Route runs once around Schleswig-Holstein. The first presentation of the route was in July 1999...
- Deutsche FährstraßeDeutsche FährstraßeThe Deutsche Fährstraße , established in May 2004, is a theme route similar to the American National Scenic Byways. It connects various places between Bremervörde and Kiel with relation to the history of ferries and crossing of rivers, like the historic transporter bridges in Rendsburg and Osten.It...
- European Route of Industrial HeritageEuropean Route of Industrial HeritageThe European Route of Industrial Heritage is a network of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. The aim of the project is to create interest for the common European Heritage of the Industrialisation and its remains...
- German Wine Route
- Romantic RoadRomantic RoadThe Romantic Road is the term for a theme route coined by travel agents in the 1950s to describe the of highway in southern Germany , between Würzburg and Füssen. In medieval times it used to be a trade route, connecting the center of Germany with the South...
- Scotland's Malt Whisky TrailScotland's Malt Whisky TrailSpeyside is home to over half of Scotland's Malt Whisky distilleries, not all of which are open to the public. The Malt Whisky Trail is a local marketing initiative established to promote the region's Whisky heritage and encourage tourism....
- Upper Swabian Baroque RouteUpper Swabian Baroque RouteThe Upper Swabian Baroque Route is a touristic theme route through Upper Swabia, following the themes of "nature, culture, baroque". The route has a length of about 500 km . It was established in 1966, being one of the first theme routes in Germany...
See also
- Auxiliary routeAuxiliary routeIn road transportation, a special route is a prefixed and/or suffixed numbered road that forms a loop or spur of a more dominant route of the same route number and system. The dominant route is generally referred to as the "parent" or "mainline", while special routes are also unofficially or...
- Scenic DriveScenic DriveScenic Drive is the name of many roads including:* Scenic Drive , New Zealand* Scenic Drive , Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada* 49-Mile Scenic Drive* Bras d'Or Lakes Scenic Drive* Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive...
- Alaska Marine HighwayAlaska Marine HighwayThe Alaska Marine Highway or the Alaska Marine Highway System is a ferry service operated by the government of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has its headquarters in Ketchikan, Alaska....
- ViewshedViewshedA viewshed is an area of land, water, or other environmental element that is visible to the human eye from a fixed vantage point. The term is used widely in such areas as urban planning, archaeology, and military science...
- National Scenic BywayNational Scenic BywayA National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the United States Department of Transportation for its archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and/or scenic qualities. The program was established by Congress in 1991 to preserve and protect the nation's scenic but often...
(United States)