SCENIC ROADS AND PARKWAYS 237 



system is still in the planning stage. Some of the corridors being 

 selected for the unfinished portions of this system will destroy com- 

 pletely or seriously damage important scenic areas of natural beauty. 



It seems to me that it would be appropriate, as part of this Con- 

 ference on Natural Beauty, that a recommendation come from this 

 panel to ask that there be reconsideration and a new study of inter- 

 state corridors now being planned with an increased emphasis on 

 the aesthetics involved and the effect of the route on scenic areas 

 before the routes are approved by the Bureau of Public Roads. We 

 may have lost some areas in the past, but we stand a chance now to 

 save a great deal from this date on. 



I would like to make a personal comment. I sometimes feel that 

 highway engineers give little more than lip service to aesthetics and, 

 in this respect, the photographs that are displayed here to me repre- 

 sent a certain amount of misrepresentation. I like to feel that the 

 highways should be designed from the point of view of the driver 

 who is sitting behind the wheel of the car and I would like to see 

 what these very same highways displayed here so beautifully photo- 

 graphed a half a mile away, would be like sitting behind the wheel. 



As anybody knows in driving across the San Francisco Bay Bridge, 

 all you see is a mass of steel girders and wires. You can't even 

 see the bay. I think that if somehow you could get across to the 

 highway engineer that he should design the scenic routes from an 

 elevation of about 5 feet above the ground, we will then be progress- 

 ing a great deal. 



Secretary UDALL. I would first like to say I am glad the confer- 

 ence was introduced to Senator Nelson who is one of the most 

 effective conservation people in the Congress and a brilliant con- 

 servation governor. If there were more and more people like him 

 in public life this would be part of the solution, too. I am sorry he 

 couldn't stay. 



I would like to say for the panel, I think you have an oppor- 

 tunity, one of the finest of opportunities of any of the panels, 

 because I know the President would like to be able to recommend, 

 when Dr. Levin's study is finished, a bold, new program to the 

 Congress next year. And maybe you should continue your delibera- 

 tions and not make your report until you have had a look at Dr. 

 Levin's study and give us and him some extra support for it. 



One other statement and I will ask the panel a question. I do 

 agree fully with the points Senator Nelson made with regard to 



