Green Mountain Parkway

It proposed as a large project to offer employment to the 16,000 unemployed Vermonters at the time, and to stimulate the economy, including by increasing tourism and recreation in the state.

[2] By April 1934, support grew for the project, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt convinced Congress to approve $50,000 for a ten-month feasibility study for the parkway.

[2] Some residents opposed the project, including Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives Ernest E. Moore, the Rutland Herald, and author Sinclair Lewis, along with members of the Green Mountain Club, maintainers of the Long Trail.

Southern Vermonters who operated tourism and recreational facilities were opposed to the highway, fearing that it would drain some visitor business to sites northward.

[3] Act 17 of the Vermont State Legislature's 1935 Special Session was passed on December 14, 1935, approving a national park, establishing jurisdiction over it, and allocating funds to begin the project.