The Natchez Trace Parkway is an area, still in a construction stage, controlled by the National Park Service. The Park Service's three general policies of presentation, protection, and interpretation are familiar to most Americans through either reading or travel, or both. Recently an innovation in Park Service areas—on a grand scale—has been introduced by congressional action, so that the Service has begun the development of a series of parkways. These parkways—sired by the East's super-highways with restricted traffic—are in effect elongated parks consisting of a high-standard roadway insulated from unsightly commercial encroachment and despoliation by the usual Park Service regulations regarding protection of natural beauty. Of the three parkways, the George Washington in Virginia is both scenic and utilitarian, the Blue Ridge is essentially a scenic recreational effort, while the Natchez Trace Parkway is commemorative of an ancient road of considerable importance in the early history of the nation.