It is uncontradicted that the road will cross successive finger ridges in an area of crumbling, faulted and unstable rock which will require massive cuts and fills. This gigantic, permanent, self-enlarging scar, together with the monumental retaining walls, will impair the beauty of the park, both inside its boundaries, and when viewed from afar. This impairment of the beauty of the park has not been considered, a serious shortcoming.

Original efforts to construct the North Shore Road were abandoned in part because of the likely aesthetic effects. The Road might be visible from NC 28 (depending on the route chosen), a scenic auto touring route, as well as from Fontana Lake. Road cuts, it was determined, would be “some of the largest scars on any of our roadwork.” Report of the Technical Committee for the Completion of the Bryson Fontana Road Construction Great Smoky Mountains , Exhibit A. The slopes would have to be “laid back” at a flatter angle. The only way to avoid this “destruction of the landscape” would be to resort to “a lower standard of alignment, greater variation of vertical curves, extensive use of retaining walls, and the construction of some tunnels, which would result in greatly increased costs. None of these solutions were satisfactory to the technical committee which found that “the importance and necessity of the terminal objective. . . in no way justifies the destruction to the landscape.” The chief landscape architect assigned to the original construction concluded that “certainly, thinking people cannot require the Service to fulfill this obligation with such total disregard of Park values!” What has changed since then that now justifies harming the scenic integrity of the Park?