The Blue Ridge Parkway is a complex national park with an interesting history. Here are several facts about this national treasure. If you have questions or need additional information, please contact Leesa Brandon or Penny Lloyd.

• The Blue Ridge Parkway is the most visited unit of the 391 units of the National Park Service with over 19,000,000 visitors – excluding commuter traffic – each year. That’s more visitors than Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone national parks combined.
• Visitors to the Parkway, according to a study done in the late 1990s, spend in excess of $2.3 billion each year in Parkway communities. The Parkway’s annual budget is only $14.3 million dollars. That’s a good return on investment.
• The Parkway passes through two states, 29 counties, six Congressional districts, four National Forests (George Washington, Jefferson, Pisgah, and Nantahala), and the Qualla Boundary Cherokee Indian Reservation.
• The Parkway has nine campgrounds with a total of 721 tent sites and 351 RV sites. There are 15 developed picnic areas and approximately 275 parking overlooks. 
• The motor road crosses 151 bridges and goes through 26 tunnels, 25 of which are in North Carolina. The longest, Pine Mountain Tunnel at milepost 399, is 1,320 feet long.
• Concessioners provide visitor services at 11 locations on the Parkway. Overnight lodging can be found at four of these locations and food service at six.
• Designated as an All-American Road, the Blue Ridge Parkway’s natural features include spectacular mountain and valley vistas, quiet pastoral scenes, sparkling waterfalls, colorful flowers, and foliage displays. 
• Designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Parkway is recognized throughout the world as an international example of landscape and engineering design achievements.
• The Parkway has approximately 4,000 neighbors. There are 500 agricultural leases that help protect the scenic vistas. In other places, encroachments and developments have had an adverse impact on the visitor experience. The quality of the visitor experience is intertwined with the experience a visitor enjoys while on the Parkway or in a neighboring community. The health of the Parkway and the economic vitality of the adjoining communities are inextricably connected.
• The Parkway is more than a road. It is one of the most biologically diverse places in the temperate portion of our planet and is one of the most diverse units (in the top 3) in the National Park Service system. It contains more species of trees than all of Europe and a number of protected plant species. The Parkway is also home to dozens of historic structures. It is a place where visitors come to make memories and enjoy the recreational opportunities that abound there.
• The Parkway is owned by all of us. Since most of the threats to the Parkway originate outside its boundaries, we all have a responsibility to provide for its stewardship in partnership with each other. There is no guarantee that the Parkway will continue to always exist. We must take action to provide for a sustainable future.
• We must make connections between young people and the natural world. Today, many children are disconnected with the things that we all grew up with. The Parkway is an excellent place for that connection to occur through its Parks As Classrooms program or the new program called Healthy Kids Healthy Parks sponsored by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation.
• We can volunteer through the good work of the FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This program engages people of all ages in stewardship activities along the Parkway.
• During its 75 years the Parkway has had only eight superintendents: Stanley W. Abbott (acting 1937-1944), Samuel P. Weems (1944-1966), James M. Eden (1966-1968), Granville B. Liles (1968-1975), Joe Brown (1975-1977), Gary E. Everhardt (1977-2000), Daniel W. Brown (2000-2005), and Philip A. Francis (2005 to present).