Linn Cove Viaduct

What riders cross at Milepost 304 on the Blue Ridge Parkway is the product of a decades-long standoff between environmentalists, landowners, and the National Park Service over how to complete the Parkway's last unfinished section around Grandfather Mountain. The answer, which arrived when the section opened to traffic in 1987, was to build from the top down — assembling 153 precast concrete segments one at a time using a crane that crept along the span as it grew, keeping heavy equipment off the mountain's fragile slopes entirely. The concrete was tinted with iron oxide so it would blend with the surrounding rock outcroppings, and nearly every one of the 153 segments is curved, giving the finished bridge its distinctive S-and-a-half shape. The 1984 President's Design Award citation described the result as "an elegant curving ribbon that caresses the terrain without using it as a support."

At the south end of the viaduct, the National Park Service operates the Linn Cove Visitor Center, which is open seasonally and includes a bridge museum with interpretive exhibits, restrooms, and trailhead access. A short paved, wheelchair-accessible path from the parking lot leads beneath the bridge itself, where the seven piers and the underside of the span can be seen up close among the boulder field. The Tanawha Trail also originates here; the section that runs beneath and past the viaduct connects into the broader Blue Ridge Parkway trail network. The visitor center is the practical reason to stop the bike — fuel up on context, use the facilities, and then walk under something you just rode across.