COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Officials are taking steps to protect Kennesaw Mountain and the millions of people who visit it each year.
About two million people drive through the gates of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park each year.
Currently, they can make their way to the top of the mountain on foot, by bicycle, or cars and trucks.
But by next year, cars and trucks will no longer be allowed to drive up to the top.
Park officials say the change will take place to protect the mountain itself from slowly wearing down under the weight of traffic.
“We have about 2 million visitors annually,” Kennesaw Park Superintendent Patrick Gamman told Channel 2’s Brittany Kleinpeter. “We’ve carved into that mountain to make that road. If we keep using vehicles on the outside road, that’s going to crumble the road.”
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Gamman said the park is halting vehicle traffic up the mountain to not only protect the mountain, but also the safety of its visitors.
“Between all the people walking their dogs, and jogging, and biking, and the driving up, it’s just getting too much,” Gamman said.
“Just now I am coming down the mountain doing the speed limit, and a car came around pretty quick, and it shocked me and a walker,” bicyclist Jeana Diodati said.
She said she sees the benefits of the ban, “I think it’s going to be a good thing in the long run.”
The ban will still allow for park shuttles to take visitors up and down the mountain daily, but pretty soon, the sound of multiple car engines will be replaced by the sound of feet and pedals.
Park officials said barricades will begin going up this fall, and the official ban on vehicles will go into effect in January.
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