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| Interstate 77 Virginia - Photos |
These photos were taken by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). Each photo can be mouse-clicked for a large version (size 165 to 179 kilobytes).
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Above, looking south, the 300-foot-deep cut at Little Walker Mountain, under construction, 1968.
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Above, looking north, the 300-foot-deep cut at Little Walker Mountain, under construction, 1968.
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Above, looking from the top of Little Walker Mountain, looking at the I-77 Big Walker Mountain Tunnel south portal, 1973.
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Above, looking south, about 5 1/2 miles north of Virginia/North Carolina border, 1977.
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Above, looking north, about 5 miles north of Virginia/North Carolina border, 1979.
Interstate 77 Virginia - Aerial Photos - two aerial photos of I-77 under construction and a map showing I-77 from the North Carolina border to I-81 at Fort Chiswell, Virginia.
Interstate 77 Fancy Gap Photos - I-77 makes a six-mile hill-climb of over 1,500 feet, commencing one mile north of the North Carolina border, with a third northbound truck-climbing lane. The top of the climb on I-77 is a summit called Fancy Gap, and is over 3,100 feet elevation. The northern 6 miles of this section traverses heavily mountainous terrain, and involved over 18 million cubic yards of excavation, making it one of the largest excavation projects in the history of the Interstate system. Southbound on the long grade, there are 3 emergency escape ramps for runaway trucks. I have 15 photos, taken along I-77 in 2001, and the sequence is 5 photos southbound starting just beyond the summit, and then 10 photos northbound starting just beyond the start of the hill-climb. The link above is to a webpage with 15 thumbnail photos with each linking to a large photo, ideal for dialup users since the total size of the webpage and its thumbnail images is only 79 kilobytes; and about halfway down that webpage just before the photos, there is a link to a "fullpage" version of that webpage that has all 15 large photos on the webpage itself, but the "fullpage" version has a total size of webpage and images of 1.44 megabytes, suitable for broadband users since it will all load to your browser fairly quickly if you have a broadband Internet connection, but will load slow indeed on a dialup Internet connection.
My Articles with Additional Information and Photos