R Getty Browning

Quick Facts

Significance:

R. Getty Browning was an engineer whose work guided the initial exploration and design of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

R. Getty Browning was the Federal Parkway Engineer and the Senior Locating and Claim Engineer for the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was his work that guided the initial exploration and design of the parkway.

He trekked the ridgelines of the Blue Ridge to find the optimum route. It is Browning who made the recommendations to Stanley Abbott and to the engineers regarding the geography and the view-sheds. He was called to Washington, where he presented a persuasive argument to Harold Ickes for what became the route of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Browning's maps were given to the Secretary of the Interior in 1934 in preparation for Parkway planning . These maps were the catalyst for the acceptance of the Blue Ridge Parkway plan.

Later, in one of the many trips to western North Carolina made by Ickes and by Arno Cammerer, his assistant, it was Browning who was called on to escort the dignitaries on planned trips to the Blue Ridge Parkway construction sites and to the surrounding mountains. Browning knew his western North Carolina geography, as he had spent countless hours walking the route that would later become the parkway. 

A native of Maryland, Getty started his career as a surveyor. He worked in West Virginia as a bridge surveyor and for the railroad. He them moved back to Maryland to work for the Maryland Roads Commission, which was based in Baltimore. He moved to North Carolina in 1920 to work for the newly formed Highway Commission for the state, and stayed for the remainder of his career. He became the chief location and claim engineer for the North Carolina Commission and was responsible for many highways within the state, including the Blue Ridge Parkway.

A resident of Durham, North Carolina, Browning moved to Raleigh in 1925 when he was promoted to the position of director of the Location and Right of Way department for the Highway Commission. He was a significant contributor to the war effort and was charged to assist the Navy in development of a large munitions plant. He also played a key role in the production of tankers used in the war effort.

As you travel the Blue Ridge Parkway, stop at Milepost 451.2, to view a plaque that honors Browning and his work on the Blue Ridge. Near the city of Waynesville, North Carolina, a high peak of some 6,000 feet, called is Browning Knob, is named for the indefatigable mountain lover, R. Getty Browning.