Press Coverage of Parkway Startup, 1935

These articles from the fall of 1935 chart reporting of Parkway construction startup in the North Carolina regional press. They identify the following beginning dates for various Parkway activities:

• "110 Men To Begin Work": Published on September 5, this article notes that Parkway work by Durham contractor Nello Teer, awarded the first Parkway construction contract, would "get underway immediately."
• "Work on Scenic Parkway Link to Begin Very Soon": Published on Thursday, September 12, 1935, this article says that "the first work toward the construction of the first link of the Park-to-Park Scenic highway began Wednesday morning [September 11, 1935], when a few men were employed by the contractor to assit in unloading and moving machinery to Low Gap, where the first dirt will be moved." The article further advises that "steam shovels will begin moving dirt there on next Monday morning" (September 16, 1935).
• "Parkway Started Monday Above Lowgap": Published on Thursday, September 19, 1935, this article elaborates on the first days. It says that more than 100 men under the direction of Durham contractor Nello Teer started work on the first Parkway section (at the NC-VA line) the previous Monday morning, which would have been September 16, 1935. The first job given to the men was to clear off the "200 foot right of way" [sic]. "Work was started where the Parkway crosses the Lowgap-Sparta road at the Lyons brick house." Other men were unloading and assisting in "getting a huge dirt shovel from the railroad siding at Galax to the scene of operations."
• "President Restores Funds for Building of Parkway": Published on October 3, 1935, this article on funding says that North Carolina Highway Commission Chairman Capus Waynick "is assured work will start on the Virginia line--Blowing Rock sections in a short time . . . ." The articles above say, however, that it had already begun. 

So "beginning" a construction project has a number of discrete steps.