The families started the North Shore Cemetery Association and continue to make occasional visits for 'decoration days' on which the families clean up the cemeteries and hold services. A pontoon boat, provided by the Park Service, must cross Fontana Lake. Without the road, starting in the late 1970s, the National Park Service began providing transportation to families to visit cemeteries to which access was cut off. After $4.1 million spent on the road, environmental concerns became a pressing matter because of exposed Anakeesta rock and the possibility that the mild acid that comes from the rock could leak into nearby streams, damaging plants and fish. Construction was halted by 1971, after the completion of the road tunnel and Noland Creek bridge. Wirth, then director of the NPS, to 'seriously reconsider' the plan and said that the road would become costly with damage to the area's landscape.

In 1962, after the first 2.3 miles (3.7 km) was nearly completed, a letter from the Bureau of Public Roads asked Conrad L. In 1960, construction began on the eastern segment, where crews quickly ran into unstable rock. In 1958, North Carolina completed work on Fontana Road (SR 1364), which ends at the National Park boundary. After World War II, construction began on the western.

In 1944, Fontana Dam was completed and Fontana Lake was formed also by this time, the TVA had fulfilled all its obligations under the agreement. DOI, contingent upon appropriation of all necessary funds, to build a replacement park road around the north side of Fontana Lake.TVA to buy the 44,000 acres (18,000 ha), displacing the residents, and to transfer the land to the National Park Service (NPS) as addition to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.TVA to pay $400,000 to the county as compensation for the flooding of North Carolina Highway 288.The story of Lakeview Drive begins on July 30, 1943, when the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the state of North Carolina, Swain County and the Department of the Interior (DOI) entered into an agreement that called for: See also: Fontana Dam and North Carolina Highway 288 Some portions of the trail follow old NC 288, where hikers may see abandoned automobiles from 1920's-1930's and a bridge at Lands Creek during the winter months, when lake levels are low. The Lakeshore Trail connects with other trails that cross-cross the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and has several campsites. The 34.7-mile-long (55.8 km) trail includes the half-mile portion of road and tunnel that was never opened for vehicles. Lakeshore Trail connects both segments of Lakeview Drive by following the proposed routing of the road. The speed limit along the road is 45-mile-per-hour (72 km/h). Stone facades on bridges and wooden rails along it shoulders appears similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The road, over 5,000 feet (1,500 m) above the Tuckasegee River section of Fontana Lake, curves along Mine Mountain and Buzzardroost Mountain before crossing over Noland Creek and then ending at the edge of Tunnel Ridge. Lakeview Drive East, located near Bryson City, is a 5.8-mile (9.3 km) road from Fontana Road (SR 1364) to a parking area, located less than a 1,000 feet (300 m) from the road tunnel. Both the Appalachian Trail and Benton MacKaye Trail overlap this road segment. 7-mile (1.1 km) road segment located at Fontana Dam, the road hugs the north-western shore of Little Tennessee River section of Fontana Lake before ending at a parking area.

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