Colonial Parkway

A 23-mile parkway linking Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown, built by the National Park Service between 1930 and 1957 with a single obsessive goal: to remove every trace of the 20th century from the drive.

There is no centre line, no advertising, no commercial frontage, and the surface is exposed aggregate concrete chosen to look like packed earth. Modern roads cross it on bridges or pass beneath; Williamsburg itself is bypassed through a tunnel under the historic area. The result runs along the James River, through pine and hardwood forest, then out along the York with wide water views for the final stretch — with pull-offs at Archer's Hope, College Creek Beach and Jones Mill Pond.

Practical: one of only 31 All-American Roads in the country. Speed limit 45 mph and enforced; the pull-offs close at sunset and rangers do ticket for it. Allow an hour with stops rather than the 40 minutes the map suggests. The forest on the York side is Naval Weapons Station land — hence the complete absence of development.