Figure Eight Loops

The highway between Crown Point [1] and Latourell Falls [2] drops 600 feet in elevation in several miles. As you wend your way downhill from Vista House, it becomes apparent that Lancaster softened the grade of the road by means of switchbacks. With a grade never exceeding 5 percent and curve radii of not less than 100 feet, this section presents few problems for modern vehicles, but it challenged period cars and trucks during the highway’s first decades.

During construction, Scottish stonecutters and Italian masons sometimes hung suspended on ropes, singing while they worked on the precipitous, circuitous roadbed.