 Roadways and national and state parks, national forests and historic communities serve an important function because they make the scenic beauty of these places accessible to all people. It's easy to forget that automobile accidents can happen as easily inside the park boundaries as outside. Safety should be as important on a scenic roadway as it is on any other transportation facility. Of course not all roads requiring aesthetically pleasing roadside hardware are rustic pathways through the wilderness. Some roadways are interstate parkways that provide transportation access to facilities as well as the beauty of the surroundings. Roadside safety hardware on these roads must balance the need for protecting motorists with consideration for the scenic beauty of the area. Some roadways that must coordinate aesthetic beauty with their transportation function are located in congested urban areas like this parkway near Washington D.C. Recently a number of guardrails and bridge rails have been developed that combine safety with aesthetics. These safety appurtenances can be used on roadways where preserving the scenic beauty or historical character of an area is important. Guardrails are designed to prevent vehicles from leaving the roadway. These conditions like steep side slopes or fixed objects along the side of the roadway should be shielded by guardrails where there's traffic moving at sufficient speed and in sufficient volume to warrant them. One of the earliest attempts to build guardrails that blend into the surroundings was the timber guardrail. Typically these rails were too low and fractured too easily to be effective roadside appurtenances. Since timber does not have good strength properties and an impact, the vehicles often penetrated the unreinforced timber guardrail. A strip of steel plate was added behind the rail to reinforce the wooden beam and provide continuity from rail to rail. This modification along with raising the height of the wooden rail to 25 and one quarter inches make the steel backed timber guardrail a more effective safety treatment. Vehicles made of native stone have also been used for many years as guardrails along scenic roadways. Like unreinforced timber, typical stone masonry walls do not have good strength properties and impacts. To improve the performance of this type of system, a precast or cast in place reinforced concrete core can be used to provide the strength required and an impact. The concrete core is covered with natural stone masonry. This system is strong enough to contain and redirect a large passenger car even if the impact is quite severe. The rough surface of the stone digs into the sheet metal of the car causing the car to slow down rapidly. Although this guard wall looks like natural stone, it is actually made of precast concrete shiplap units. The precast panels are interlocked and can be rotated to accommodate horizontal curvature. This design was strong enough to contain and redirect this 4600 pound passenger car. A variety of bridge rails have also been developed recently to provide aesthetic alternatives on bridges in scenic areas. The stone masonry bridge rail is actually a stone wall that is built in front of a cast in place concrete wall. The reinforced concrete wall is placed along with the concrete bridge deck. A 9 inch thick wall of quarried stone is then built on the traffic face and finished with a capstone that covers the top of both the stone and concrete walls. This barrier functioned well containing and redirecting this large car. Since the stone face was smoother than the natural stone wall, the car was redirected a little more smoothly than in the stone masonry guard wall test. Glue laminated wood bridge rails are becoming popular alternatives on low volume roadways where the bridge is also made of wood. This bridge railing was strong enough to contain this pickup truck. The federal lands highways version of the Kansas Corral bridge rail evolved from a state standard bridge railing. It's a cast in place reinforced concrete bridge railing that is well suited for use in new concrete bridge construction. This bridge rail performed well in test with this 5400 pound pickup truck as well as an 1800 pound small car. These bridge rails and guard rails combine safety and visual appeal, but they do so at a price. All of these systems are expensive because they use special techniques to enhance the aesthetics of normally utilitarian traffic barriers. The steel back timber guard rail is the least expensive system costing more than twice as much as a typical strong post guard rail. The precast and masonry stone guard walls cost 6 and 12 times more than a typical strong post guard rail. The cost of bridge rails are more difficult to estimate since the rail is usually included in the overall cost of the bridge. In general though, aesthetic bridge railings are probably not much more expensive than more typical bridge rails. Safety and aesthetics need not be conflicting goals on scenic roads and highways. These bridge rails and guard rails can be used on park roads and scenic parkways as well as on roadways and communities where more typical roadside barriers would compromise the historic or aesthetic character of the surroundings. Ensuring that scenic areas remain aesthetically pleasing is of course very important. Providing safe roads for those who enjoy the view can be a compatible priority.