Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Newfound Gap Highway

  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-4982.jpg
  • At 5,048 feet, Newfound Gap is located near the geographic center of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. State highway 441 passes through the gap. In the mid-1920s, before the park was established, North Carolina and Tennessee agreed to build a road through center of the proposed park. The road was built in the mid-1930s and included a 360-degree loop that replaced steep switchbacks. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the park in 1940 at this site, selected for its political neutrality as it lies along the state lines of both North Carolina and Tennessee.