Mount Vernon Memorial Highway

Construction of the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway resulted from years of public support for a dignified memorial road connecting the nation’s capital with the home of its first president. The 15-mile roadway opened in 1932 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth. As the first commemorative scenic highway built by the U.S. government, it became a model for a new era of public roads. Designed to blend into the natural landscape and built with limited access points, it included panoramic vistas and historical attractions. Before it was built, visitors to Mount Vernon had to travel a congested inland road lined with refuse dumps, billboards, and commercial development. The highway instead follows the Potomac shoreline, meandering past historic sites and through woodlands and marsh, and it was designed to preserve as many trees as possible while also being planted with several hundred thousand native trees and shrubs. Today it is part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, which extends 25 miles along the Potomac River, is a unit of the national park system, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Fort Hunt, Virginia · United States