Franconia Notch

Franconia Notch
Franconia Notch
	White Mountains
Coordinates	44°10′15″N 71°41′17″W / 44.1707°N 71.6881°W
Topo map	USGS Franconia (NH)
U.S. National Natural Landmark
Designated	1971

Bierstadt Brothers

Franconia Notch (elev. 1,950 feet/590 m) is a major

White Mountains of New Hampshire. Dominated by Cannon Mountain to the west and Mount Lafayette to the east, it lies principally within Franconia Notch State Park and is traversed by the Franconia Notch Parkway (Interstate 93 and U.S. Route 3). The parkway required a special act of Congress to sidestep design standards for the Interstate highway system^[1] because it is only one lane in each direction.^[2]

The notch was home to the Old Man of the Mountain, a rock formation which collapsed in 2003 but whose profile remains a symbol of the state of New Hampshire.

The notch is located primarily in the town of

Little Haystack Mountain (4,780 feet/1,460 m), and to the west by 4,080-foot (1,240 m) Cannon Mountain and the sheer face of Cannon Cliff. The notch's height of land is located near its northern end, at the base of Cannon Mountain. Echo Lake lies just north of the high point of the notch, with an outlet that flows into Lafayette Brook, then the Gale River, the Ammonoosuc River, and finally the Connecticut River, which enters Long Island Sound at Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Just south of the height of land, Profile Lake lies beneath the cliff that once held the Old Man of the Mountain. Profile Lake is the source of the Pemigewasset River, the primary tributary of the Merrimack River, which flows to the Gulf of Maine at Newburyport, Massachusetts

.

References

^ The eventual compromise—a narrow, speed-controlled 8-mile stretch—required Congress to pass a special amendment to the standards applied across the rest of the U.S. interstate system. Appalachian Mountain Club: The Battle for Franconia Notch
^ Kimberly A. Jarvis, From the Mountains to the Sea: Protecting Nature in Postwar New Hampshire (University of Massachusetts Press, 2020) online review

External links

[1] The eventual compromise—a narrow, speed-controlled 8-mile stretch—required Congress to pass a special amendment to the standards applied across the rest of the U.S. interstate system. Appalachian Mountain Club: The Battle for Franconia Notch

[2] Kimberly A. Jarvis, From the Mountains to the Sea: Protecting Nature in Postwar New Hampshire (University of Massachusetts Press, 2020) online review

[1]

[2]

v t e Gaps of the Appalachian Mountains
Water gaps	Cumberland Narrows Brocks Gap Delaware Water Gap Gaps of the Allegheny Blair Gap Kittanning Gap Goshen Pass Hillsboro Gap James River Gorge Lehigh Gap Loysburg Gap Mechanicsburg Gap Moccasin Gap The Narrows Potomac Water Gap Reeds Gap Schuylkill Gap Swatara Gap Thoroughfare Gap
Wind gaps	Ashby Gap Buford's Gap Carmans Notch Chester Gap Crampton's Gap Cumberland Gap Deep Notch Diamond Notch Fishers Gap Fox's Gap Jarman Gap Keyes Gap Maggoty Gap Manassas Gap McCormick Gap New Market Gap Pound Gap Rockfish Gap Snickers Gap Swift Run Gap Thornton Gap Turner's Gap Wilson Gap
Passes	Appalachian Gap Balsam Gap Brock Gap Buck Creek Gap Bull Gap Carter Notch Cowee Gap Craven Gap Crawford Notch Deals Gap Dixville Notch Evans Notch Franconia Notch Gillespie Gap Grafton Notch Grandmother Gap Granville Notch Hazen's Notch Hobart Gap Kinsman Notch Lincoln Gap Mahoosuc Notch Middlebury Gap Monterey Pass Newfound Gap Pinkham Notch Sherburne Pass Skinners Gap Smugglers Notch Soco Gap Stony Clove Notch Zealand Notch
Artificial cuts	Clarke's Gap

Franconia Notch

See also

References

Further reading

External links