Shortcut to Paradise (Front‪)‬

Corolla has long been one of Currituck County's favorite - and most remote - Outer Banks travel havens. // Getting there requires making what is essentially a giant U-turn that can add more than a hour's drive. // Those familiar with the jaunt know that first you must drive south almost to Kitty Hawk before crossing the Currituck Sound. Then you flip around on N.C. 12 and head north toward Corolla, land of wild horses, a lighthouse and isolated beaches. After about 20 years of debate , state and local officials and environmentalists are near agreement on a $659 million shortcut: a 5-mile bridge over the sound that would link Corolla to a small town about a 40-minute drive from the Virginia-North Carolina line.