Pedestrian bridge to open soon for McAfee Knob trail crossing

Said to be the most photographed spot on the Appalachian Trail, McAfee Knob near Roanoke, Virginia, is visited by around 50,000 hikers every year. But for years, hikers have had to contend with a hazardous crossing of Virginia 311 as they leave the crowded parking lot at the trailhead.

“It’s a blind crossing with traffic going by at 55 miles an hour,” says Jim Webb, assistant trail supervisor and board member of the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club. “You had to really listen before you crossed.”

Though no hikers have been seriously injured crossing 311, it could be a harrowing experience. Soon, though, hikers will be able to use a 90-foot-long, steel and concrete pedestrian bridge to cross safely over the road.

The completion of the bridge and connection to the AT by the trail club will mark the end of a very long process. A 2001 study by the Federal Highway Administration of some of the more dangerous road crossings on the Appalachian Trail highlighted the McAfee Knob crossing as one with a high potential for accidents.

But when Andrew Downs came on as a regional director of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in 2013, efforts to improve the parking lot and put in a bridge had stalled. Liz Belcher, Roanoke Valley Greenways coordinator and a knowledgeable advocate for the Appalachian Trail, took Downs to the parking lot not long after he started.

“She took me by the ear and walked me up to the parking lot and said, ‘If this isn’t your highest priority, we’re going to have a problem. It’s the biggest problem in Virginia on the Appalachian Trail,’” Downs says. “I quickly found out she was right.”

To get some momentum started, Downs scheduled a meeting with representatives from the National Park Service and the Virginia Department of Transportation — at the parking lot late on a Friday afternoon.

“I was trying to get the most dangerous time of the workweek to have that meeting,” Downs says. “While we were standing in the parking lot, the park service superintendent said we should relocate the meeting because it was too dangerous in the parking lot.”

In 2016, VDOT secured federal funding for construction of the bridge. The planning process started in 2016 with heavy involvement by ATC, the National Park Service, VDOT and the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club.

RATC’s involvement was especially important, according to Downs.

“Diana was critical,” he says, referring to Diana Christopulos, archivist and past president of the trail club.

The pedestrian bridge won’t solve all the issues at the trailhead. Overcrowding of the trail has long been an issue, and the unpaved, unmarked lot fills up early. Hikers also park on the side of Old Catawba Road — which isn’t exactly legal, and vehicles there are sometimes towed.

Education is key, according to Christopulos. She serves as one of the “ridge runners” deployed by RATC to monitor the trail, assist hikers and educate them about group-size rules and other restrictions. Day hike groups are limited to 25 hikers. Overnight camping groups can only include 12 people, according to Christopulos. 

“People come here from all over the world,” says Christopulos. “I met a family from India one day. One of the children pointed at the view and said, ‘Look, look! This is the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen!’”

Construction should wrap up in early March, once some railing that has been on order for months is delivered, according to Christopulos.