US government spent almost $52 million on a road in North Carolina that doesn't lead anywhere

While Americans may fret over overspending on frivolous items, they can't compete with the U.S. Department of the Interior. The government agency once embarked on an ambitious project in the North Carolina mountains, only to abandon it decades later. What's more astonishing is that it built a 6-7 mile stretch of road at a cost of $4 million and later agreed to pay $52 million more in settlement, as it was never completed. The road nicknamed "The Road to Nowhere", now serves as a popular tourist spot providing access to hikes, trails, and ghost towns of the mountains. 

The Road to Nowhere

In the early 1940s amid World War 2, the federal government was nearing the end of a massive public works project called Tennessee Valley Authority that pulled the region out of the Great Depression. While the project changed the face of the region, its stark failure still stands today. 

In 1943, the TVA set out to create Fontana Lake and the dam of the same name to generate electricity and supplement the war efforts, as per the local tour website, The Smokies.com.  For this, hundreds of acres of land and towns had to be flooded.

The TVA agreed to pay $400,000 to the county as compensation for the relocation of residents. This created several ghost towns in the area and according to WRAL News, the town of Judson still stands beneath the Fontana dam today.

As a part of the project, the TVA also promised to build a 30-mile road that would provide the displaced residents access to their ancestral lands and Lake Fontana. After the dam was finished, through the 1950s and the 1960s, the DOI slowly built a scenic mountain highway.

However, it made slow progress in the challenging terrain, and about 20 years into the construction, the project was abandoned. Only 6 miles of road, a tunnel, and the Noland Creek Bridge were built in this time, at a cost of roughly $4 million, the Smokies report said.

This angered the people of Swain County, who accused the government of breaking its promise. Thus, what was officially known as the 'Lakeview Drive', was locally named as 'Road to Nowhere – A Broken Promise'.

A costly failure

Several efforts were made to force the government into resuming construction. However, due to ecological reasons and the hefty cost of construction, the project remained undone. Finally, Swain County sued the DOI and in 2010, the North Shore Road settlement was reached.

The DOI agreed to pay $52 million to the county in installments until 2020. However, after the first $12.8 million installment, the money got stuck until 2018, when $35.2 million was paid in lumpsum, Smoky Mountain News reported. 

A great tourist destination

Today, the Road to Nowhere remains a popular attraction for Bryson City visitors. It provides access to hiking trails, including the 33.5-mile Lakeshore Trail. It's also a beautiful drive that includes a rather creepy tunnel pass. 

Ruins of old homesteads including the old stone chimneys and decaying houses in the county can be found off the trails around the Road to Nowhere.