Sens. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., will join their Virginia counterparts in seeking federal money to buy up to 50,000 acres along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The parkway, begun as a public works project during the Great Depression, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. It runs 469 miles from Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Virginia's Shenandoah National Park. Nearly 20 million visitors a year drive it.

Park supporters have grown increasingly concerned in recent years that mountain-top vacation homes and other development are obscuring views from the historic road.

Hagan and Burr said Tuesday that they and Virginia Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner will seek $75 million over five years to buy high-priority land around the parkway. Reps. Heath Shuler and David Price of North Carolina and Reps. Rick Boucher and Tom Perriello will introduce a companion bill in the House.

The Conservation Trust for North Carolina, a nonprofit group that has worked to protect the parkway's corridor, proposed the legislation.

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