Historic American Engineering Record

Linn Cove Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway (HAER NC-42). This is the first precast concrete segmental concrete segmental viaduct to be built with the progressive method in the United States. It contains nearly every type of highway construction within its length.

NPS / HAER / David W. Haas (1996-97)

The Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) was founded in 1969 to record America's engineering and industrial heritage. HAER documents a wide array of sites, structures, and objects, including transportation systems and infrastructure, industrial buildings and machinery, public utilities, mines, bridges, watercraft, historic vehicles, and even space craft. Like much of our built environment, the nation's engineering legacy is subject to loss from many forces, particularly obsolescence through technological advances, developmental pressures, and changing regulations governing health, environmental concerns, and public safety. HAER issues guidelines to ensure that this legacy is properly recorded in a consistent and accessible manner. HAER was created through an agreement between the National Park Service (NPS), the Library of Congress, and five separate engineering societies, including the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers.