Scenic Drive
El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Scenic Drive As early as 1881, El Paso leaders promoted the idea of creating a place along the base of the Franklin Mountains to provide visitors a panoramic view of the area. The automobile brought new attention to the idea, and in 1920, the city council and Mayor Charles Davis approved construction of a scenic drive. Finished in October 1920, the route became a popular attraction. The 1.82-mile drive reaches an elevation of 4,222 feet, 500 feet above the Rio Grande. In 1932, the city contracted to widen and pave the road, and in 1934, Civilian Conservation Corps Company 855 (Fort Bliss) carried out additional culvert work. Scenic Drive continues to attract visitors to the view of El Paso, Ciudad Juárez and the surrounding Chihuahuan desert. (2004)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
El Paso boosters dreamed as early as 1881 of a road along the Franklin Mountains offering a grand view of the valley below. The automobile made it possible, and in 1920 the city built the winding Scenic Drive, which climbs to 4,222 feet — some 500 feet above the Rio Grande. Widened and paved in the 1930s, with culvert work by a Civilian Conservation Corps company from Fort Bliss, it remains a favorite lookout over El Paso, Ciudad Juárez, and the Chihuahuan Desert.
Why it matters
Scenic Drive marks the moment the automobile reshaped how Americans experienced their landscapes, turning a mountainside into a civic attraction with a cross-border view.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1880s El Paso was changing fast. The railroads had just reached the old river crossing, and a dusty border settlement was turning into a city. Even then, local leaders looked up at the Franklin Mountains rising over town and saw what visitors would want: a high place to take in the whole sweep of the valley. The idea was there by 1881. A practical way to get people up the mountain was not.
The automobile provided it. By 1920 cars were spreading quickly across the country, and towns everywhere were working out what the new machines meant for them. Good roads were becoming a civic cause, and a scenic road was a way for a city to show itself off. When El Paso finally built its drive along the mountain's base, it was joining a national trend of designing roads for the view, and for the pleasure of driving, as well as for getting somewhere.
The next chapter came during the Great Depression. The paving of the early 1930s, and later the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps, show how hard times and New Deal programs put people to work improving public places in cities and countrysides alike.
People & events
The dream of a mountainside lookout passed through four decades of El Paso boosters before anyone built it. What finally made it happen was a decision by the city council and Mayor Charles Davis in 1920, when cars had made the old idea suddenly practical. The work went quickly. The drive was finished that October and immediately became one of the city's favorite outings.
The road is short, under two miles, but it climbs to a perch about 500 feet above the Rio Grande. That modest climb opens a huge view. In 1932, as the Depression deepened, the city contracted to widen and pave the route, turning a rough mountain road into something better suited to the growing stream of cars.
Then, in 1934, came the young men of Civilian Conservation Corps Company 855, based at Fort Bliss. The CCC was one of the best-known New Deal programs, giving jobless young men paid work on public projects. At Scenic Drive their job was culverts, the unglamorous channels that carry water under a road. On a desert mountainside, where a sudden storm can send water racing downhill, that kind of work is what keeps a road from washing away.
Its place in the American story
Scenic Drive is a small, clear example of how the automobile changed the way Americans experienced their landscapes. Before cars, a mountain view belonged mostly to people willing to hike or ride. Afterward, a city could build a road and make that view available to anyone with a car and an afternoon off. Across the country, scenic drives, overlooks and parkways turned looking at the land into a popular pastime.
The road's history also follows a familiar national arc. It began as civic boosterism, was made possible by the car, and was improved through public investment and New Deal labor during the Depression. Many American roads, parks and public spaces still carry the mark of the CCC, and this one is part of that legacy.
Its view makes it distinctive. From the top you see two nations at once: El Paso and Ciudad Juárez spreading across the valley with the Chihuahuan Desert beyond. Few American lookouts make the closeness and shared life of the border so plain to the eye.
If you visit
Come for the view, because that is what the road was built for. From the high point you can look across El Paso and Ciudad Juárez and pick out the line of the Rio Grande winding between them, with desert and distant mountains all around. It helps to remember that this is one urban area split by an international boundary.
The drive itself is short, so take it slowly and enjoy how the city unfolds beneath you as you climb. Pay attention to the road too. The drainage that keeps it intact in a desert storm descends from the culvert work done here in the 1930s.
A lot of visitors like to return near sunset or after dark, when the lights of two cities spread across the valley floor. It makes a natural first or last stop on any El Paso visit, a way to get your bearings before heading into downtown, the missions down the valley, or the long desert roads east and west.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Charles Davis
Related events
- · Civilian Conservation Corps
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