Potential Contractors - 4/10

Frank A. Kittredge of the Bureau of Public Roads directed the survey of 1924. The project, which mapped out 21 miles over the Continental Divide, started in September, and Kittredge raced to finish the survey before winter closed in. Kittredge and his team of 32 men often climbed 3000 feet each morning to get to survey sites. The crew walked along narrow ledges and hung over cliffs by ropes to take many of the measurements. The work was too challenging for some, and Kittredge’s crew suffered from a 300 percent labor turnover in the three months of the survey.

Glacier National Park officials and Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, were extremely impressed with the work of Kittredge and the Bureau of Public Roads. In 1925, as a result of the Bureau’s work on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, Mather signed an agreement with the Bureau to supervise road construction in all National Parks.

Blending with the Landscape - 5/10

Although the Bureau of Public Roads provided the road building expertise, National Park Service landscape architects together with the Bureau’s engineers created the specifications for the road, working to blend the road into the surrounding environment. They insisted that the bridges, retaining walls, and guardrails be made of native materials. Most of the structures along the road used rock excavated from the adjacent mountainsides during construction. Another concern was with construction methods. Contractors were required to use numerous small blasts of explosives, since large blasts would cause more destruction to the landscape. It was even recommended that power shovels are excluded from construction, but since the expense of a road built exclusively with hand labor was too great, they were allowed to be used.

Stephen T. Mather - 6/10

In August of 1924, first Director of the National Park service Stephen Mather and Glacier National Park superintendent Charles J. Kraebel were inspecting construction progress on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Two other men accompanied the Director and the Superintendent as they examined the steep approach to Logan Pass on the west side of the Continental Divide. National Park service engineer George Goodwin had proposed a route for the Going-to-the-Sun Road which required 15 switchbacks to approach Logan Pass. Tom Vint, a National Park Service Landscape Architect opposed Goodwin’s plan, so he lobbied Director Mather to approve an alternate route for the road. Vint’s suggestion required only one switchback.

The group was divided in opinion, and Mather wanted a solution. As the argument continued, Mather looked at Goodwin, looked at Vint, glanced at their horses, turned and stormed off toward another appointment. By the time Vint and Goodwin assembled the horses, they never caught up with the Director. Two days later Mather resolved the conflict. He enlisted the Bureau of Public Roads, and they assigned Frank A. Kittredge to survey what became the present route. Today the Going-to-the-Sun road has only one switchback (called “the Loop”) west of the Continental Divide. Tom Vint’s suggestion had prevailed. But more importantly, Mather had forged a long-term agreement between the National Park Service and the Bureau of Public Roads to construct many park roads throughout the west.