Great Smoky Mountains Parkway

The Great Smoky Mountains Parkway is a highway that travels 23.4 mi between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Interstate 40 (I-40) in Kodak, Tennessee, in East Tennessee. It serves as the main thoroughfare for Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville, and includes a 4.3 mi spur of the Foothills Parkway. It is composed of sections of a number of numbered highways, including U.S. Route 441 (US 441) and US 321 and State Route 66 (SR 66) and SR 448.

The parkway serves as the primary means of access to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the United States, and the numerous tourist attractions located within the cities of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg. The parkway is one of the most congested non-freeway routes in the state, carrying more than 50,000 vehicles per day in some locations.

Route description
Most of the Great Smoky Mountains Parkway is a divided highway, except for the segment south of Gatlinburg, which carries little traffic. Most of the parkway has been widened to six lanes, and is one of the most congested arterial routes in the state. The road is simply called "Parkway" in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, where most of the commercial land development has occurred in those two cities. Both have numbered each traffic light sequentially to make it easier for non-locals to find their hotels and other tourist attractions. Sevierville has its traffic lights numbered in miles and tenths, according to the mileage from the national park boundary.

The Great Smoky Mountains Parkway begins as a segment of US 441 at the Tennessee–North Carolina state line in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park a few miles south of Gatlinburg. Entering Gatlinburg, the route widens to four lanes as an undivided arterial route. In downtown Gatlinburg, the route turns north at an intersection with US 321, beginning a wrong-way concurrency with that route.

Leaving Gatlinburg, the parkway passes through the Little Pigeon River Gorge and becomes part of the Foothills Parkway as its spur route, although that roadway has yet to be built in the area (the right of way for it already includes land for a small interchange adjacent to the southern end of the Pigeon Forge city limit). This 4.3 mi segment, on a narrow strip of National Park Service (NPS) land, is a four-lane divided highway which runs along both banks of the northward-flowing Little Pigeon River. Where the river briefly diverts to the west and back east again, the southbound lanes on the west bank also curve around, while the northbound lanes go through a tunnel. The Gatlinburg visitor center is located just before entering the town from the north. The Gatlinburg Bypass, part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, connects with the parkway to provide a direct access to the National Park. All of these parkways are operated as part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, unlike other separate National Parkways, with support for design and road construction (including repaving) from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) through the Public Lands Transportation Program (PLTP) as in other National Parks.

Entering Pigeon Forge, the NPS corridor ends and the route widens to six lanes. A short distance later is an intersection with SR 449, which serves as an alternative route to the parkway between Pigeon Forge and Sevierville. A short distance beyond this point, US 321 splits off to the east, heading towards Maryville.

Upon entering Sevierville, the parkway splits into an east and west branch, which together encircle the business district of Sevierville, as well as a spur in both directions along US 411. Northbound traffic is directed along the east branch, which contains three northbound lanes and one southbound lane, and southbound traffic along the west branch, which contains three southbound lanes and one northbound lane. In this split section, both north and southbound lanes intersect with US 411, where US 441 splits of into a concurrency with US 411 to the east. At this intersection, the parkway becomes part of SR 66, and is known as Winfield Dunn Parkway.

The parkway continues north for several more miles through a less-developed area, before reaching an intersection with SR 139. A few miles later, the parkway reaches its northern terminus at exit 407, a diverging diamond interchange with I-40 in the community of Kodak. The route continues to the north as a county-maintained surface street, and SR 66 splits off onto an unsigned concurrency with I-40 to the east.

Christmas displays
Within the towns, the road is decorated with Christmas lights all winter. As a six-lane divided highway through Pigeon Forge, very tall multi-fixture street lights in the median are decorated with white LED snowflakes that fall down the poles. In Gatlinburg, white LED deciduous trees sprout from the lampposts, in addition to other displays, such as the large one that stretches across the road at the town's northern entrance. In Sevierville, the traditional and much brighter snowflake light sculptures are still in use.

History
On October 1, 1923, SR 71 was established between Indian Gap at the North Carolina state line and the present intersection of with US 411 and US 441 (then SR 65) in Sevierville. This was one of the first numbered state routes designated in Tennessee. This road followed the approximately location of the Road Prong Trail between Indian Gap and the Chimney Tops trailhead. In 1932, SR 71 was rerouted onto the present-day road between Newfound Gap and Gatlinburg. After the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934 and subsequent dedication in 1940, the state began pushing for a U.S. Route designation through the park. On September 14, 1945, a $9 million (equivalent to $ in ) plan to improve roads within and around the park was announced by the Bureau of Public Roads, predecessor to the Federal Highway Administration, which included the construction of a four-lane highway between the park entrance in Gatlinburg and Knoxville. In the late 1940s, the stretch of SR 71 through Pigeon Forge was moved to a new alignment. In late 1951, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) approved redesignating the section between Newfound Gap and Sevierville as part of US 441, and SR 71 became a hidden designation.

In preparation for construction of the Gatlinburg Spur, the 1.5 mi four-lane section of the parkway in the north part of the city, work to construct a new four-lane bridge over Dudley Creek in Gatlinburg began on September 26, 1951, and was completed on September 19, 1952. The southbound bridge over the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River was constructed between September 27, 1951, and November 3, 1952. Work on the remainder of the Gatlinburg Spur began on September 16, 1952, and a temporary alignment opened to traffic on July 14, 1953. Final completion of the project occurred on May 27, 1954. In the mid-1950s, the stretch of the parkway through Pigeon Forge was widened to four lanes. Construction on the section between Banner Bridge and Caney Creek south of Pigeon Forge began on April 25, 1957, and was completed on October 29, 1958, with the exception of the northbound tunnel, which opened on March 3, 1959

The northernmost segment of the parkway between Sevierville and I-40 was widened from four to six lanes in three phases with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Phase 1, between Nichols Street and SR 338, began on July 15, 2009, and was completed on November 18, 2011, at a cost of $38.6 million (equivalent to $ in ). Phase 2, between SR 139 and I-40, began in September 2010 and was completed in November 2012 at a cost of $23.3 million (equivalent to $ in ). Phase 3, between SR 338 and SR 139 began in March 2012, and was expected to be completed by October 31, 2014. This project was delayed until the middle of 2016 and cost $32.5 million (equivalent to $ in ). The interchange with I-40 was reconstructed into a diverging diamond interchange between March 12, 2014, and June 30, 2015.