Island Ford Steel Bridge
In 1901 the Virginia Iron and Bridge Company of Roanoke received a contract to build a three-span iron bridge across the river in Franklinville at Island Ford. The bridge was a gift to the citizens...
View ArticleFort York
A little known Confederate fort that was built in anticipation of Union General George Stoneman’s Raid into Piedmont North Carolina and to protect the North Carolina Railroad Bridge, Fort York is now...
View ArticleWright Brothers National Memorial
Congress established Kill Devil Hills National Memorial on March 2, 1927 to commemorate Wilbur and Orville Wright and their contribution to aeronautics and for conducting the world’s first successful...
View ArticleThe North Carolina Highway Patrol
During the 1920s, more and more cars traveled across North Carolina and more and more Tar Heels purchased automobiles. Over 500,000 vehicles were registered in 1929, and traffic accidents were an...
View ArticleCurrituck Beach Lighthouse
 In the early-1870s, captains were having difficulty navigating along the choppy waters along the North Carolina coast, and cargo was being lost. So, Congress appropriated $178,000 and construction...
View ArticleBlue Ridge Parkway
A route that extends 469 miles through the Virginia and North Carolina mountains, the Blue Ridge Parkway has remained what historian William Powell describes as a travel experience “never to be...
View ArticleDismal Swamp Canal
In 1728, Colonel William Byrd II surveyed the Great Dismal Swamp to determine the boundaries between Virginia and North Carolina. Byrd proposed digging a series of ditches to drain the swamp. He was...
View ArticlePlank Roads Were An Economic Engine Before the Civil War
During the 1840s, North Carolinians embraced the use of plank roads to improve the state’s economy. These wooden highways — built mainly with private funds — were purported to be an improvement over...
View ArticleHow North Carolina Came to Be Shaped As It Is Today
When did North Carolina become known as North Carolina and acquire its modern shape? We must go back to Jan. 24, 1712, when Edward Hyde became the first governor of what became known as North Carolina,...
View ArticleThe Great Wagon Road
Numerous traders, missionaries, soldiers, and settlers traveled the Great Wagon Road, referred to by some historians as the most important, if possibly most traveled, road in colonial America. The...
View Article