Statement of Significance (as of designation - October 6, 2008):
Skyline Drive is primarily significant for its leading role in the movement to conserve and enhance the Nation's natural resources in the eastern United States for enjoyment and outdoor recreation by the American public that gained momentum in the mid-1920s and continued through the 1930s. It represents efforts by the United States Government with the cooperation of the Commonwealth of Virginia to conserve the characteristic scenic and natural resources of the Central Appalachians and Blue Ridge in the form of Shenandoah National Park. Designed and constructed between 1930 and 1942, it played an important role in the efforts of the federal government to provide economic relief in the form of employment for both skilled and unskilled labor during the Great Depression. These programs included drought relief funding beginning in 1931 and the varied make-work and relief programs of the New Deal era (1933 to 1942) including the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Public Works Administration (PWA), and Works Progress Administration (WPA). These programs not only promoted economic stability but moreover reflected the social-humanitarian purposes of the New Deal, advanced the conservation of natural areas, and expanded the recreational resources of the nation.