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Title 16, ConservationRelease 119-110

§460a–2 Blue Ridge Parkway; Establishment; Administration and Maintenance

Title 16 › CHAPTER 1 — NATIONAL PARKS, MILITARY PARKS, MONUMENTS, AND SEASHORES › SUBCHAPTER LXV — NATIONAL PARKWAYS › § 460a–2

Last updated Sep 23, 2026|Official source

Summary

Creates the Blue Ridge Parkway between Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. It includes lands and easements given to the United States by Virginia and North Carolina, plus nearby recreation sites. The parkway’s right-of-way must be wide enough for the road and related work like bridges, ditches, cuts, and fills, normally not more than 200 feet across federal lands. If small federal parcels would be isolated, or if terrain or views require more room for bridges, parking overlooks, or other public facilities, the width can be larger with written approval from the agency that manages those lands. The route is shown on maps approved by the Secretary of the Interior. The Secretary of the Interior will run and care for the parkway through the National Park Service under the National Park Service Act of August 25, 1916 (39 Stat. 535). The Secretary of Agriculture, with the Interior Secretary’s agreement, may connect roads and trails from nearby national forests to the parkway for protection, management, or use of forest resources. The Forest Service and National Park Service must, as much as possible, coordinate recreational planning and building on lands they manage when both agree special treatment is needed.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §460a–2

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

All lands and easements heretofore or hereafter conveyed to the United States by the States of Virginia and North Carolina for the right-of-way for the projected parkway between the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, together with sites acquired or to be acquired for recreational areas in connection therewith, and a right-of-way for said parkway of a width sufficient to include the highway and all bridges, ditches, cuts, and fills appurtenant thereto, but not exceeding a maximum of two hundred feet through Government-owned lands (except that where small parcels of Government-owned lands would otherwise be isolated, or where topographic conditions or scenic requirements are such that bridges, ditches, cuts, fills, parking overlooks, landscape development, recreational and other facilities requisite to public use of said parkway could not reasonably be confined to a width of two hundred feet, the said maximum may be increased to such width as may be necessary, with the written approval of the department or agency having jurisdiction over such lands) as designated on maps heretofore or hereafter approved by the Secretary of the Interior, shall be known as the Blue Ridge Parkway and shall be administered and maintained by the Secretary of the Interior through the National Park Service, subject to the provisions of the Act of Congress approved August 25, 1916 (39 Stat. 535), entitled “An Act to establish a National Park Service, and for other purposes”, the provisions of which Act, as amended and supplemented, are extended over and made applicable to said parkway: Provided, That the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized, with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Interior, to connect with the parkway such roads and trails as may be necessary for the protection, administration, or utilization of adjacent and nearby national forests and the resources thereof: And provided further, That the Forest Service and the National Park Service shall, insofar as practicable, coordinate and correlate such recreational development as each may plan, construct, or permit to be constructed, on lands within their respective jurisdictions which, by mutual agreement, should be given special treatment for recreational purposes.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Act of Congress approved August 25, 1916 (39 Stat. 535), entitled “An Act to establish a National Park Service, and for other purposes”, referred to in text, is act Aug. 25, 1916, ch. 408, 39 Stat. 535, known as the National Park Service Organic Act, which enacted section 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this title and provisions set out as a note under section 100101 of Title 54, National Park Service and Related Programs. Sections 1 to 4 of the Act were repealed and restated as section 1865(a) of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, and section 100101(a), chapter 1003, and section 100751(a), 100752, 100753, and 102101 of Title 54 by Pub. L. 113–287, §§ 3, 4(a)(1), 7, Dec. 19, 2014, 128 Stat. 3094, 3260, 3272. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Tables. For disposition of former sections of this title, see Disposition Table preceding section 100101 of Title 54.

Amendments

1940—Act June 8, 1940, inserted exceptions set out in parentheses.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Transfer of Functions

Functions of Federal Works Agency and of all agencies thereof, together with functions of Federal Works Administrator transferred to Administrator of General Services by section 103(a) of act June 30, 1949, ch. 288, title I, 63 Stat. 380. Both Federal Works Agency and office of Federal Works Administrator abolished by section 103(b) of that act. See

Historical and Revision Notes

under section 303(b) of Title 40, Public Buildings, Property, and Works. section 303(b) of Title 40 was amended generally by Pub. L. 109–313, § 2(a)(1), Oct. 6, 2006, 120 Stat. 1734, and, as so amended, no longer relates to the Federal Works Agency and Commissioner of Public Buildings. See 2006 Amendment note under section 303 of Title 40.

Effective Date

of

Transfer of Functions

by act
June 30, 1949, as effective
July 1, 1949, see section 605, formerly § 505, of act
June 30, 1949, ch. 288, 63 Stat. 403; renumbered by act Sept. 5, 1950, ch. 849, § 6(a), (b), 64 Stat. 583.

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

For

Transfer of Functions

of other officers, employees, and agencies of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1262, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees. Functions of Administrator of General Services transferred to Secretary of Commerce by Reorg. Plan No. 7 of 1949, § 2, eff. Aug. 20, 1949, 14 F.R. 5228, 63 Stat. 1070, set out in the Appendix to Title 5. Functions, powers, and duties of Secretary of Commerce and other officers and offices of Department of Commerce relating generally to highways under Reorg. Plan No. 7 of 1949 transferred to and vested in Secretary of Transportation by Pub. L. 89–670, § 6(a)(1)(M), Oct. 15, 1966, 80 Stat. 938. Reorg. Plan No. 7 of 1949 was amended by section 2(b) of Pub. L. 97–449, Jan. 12, 1983, 96 Stat. 2439, to reflect such transfer.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 460a–2

Title 16, Conservation

Last Updated

Sep 23, 2026

Release point: 119-110