Whiteface Mountain is 4,867 feet high, the fifth highest peak in the Adirondacks, and the highest place in the state accessible by car. A tower at the summit contains a weather station, operated as part of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center of the University at Albany. The tower also makes the peak another 40 feet higher. The paved road to the summit is open from May to October, and begins at the tollhouse, where a $20 per person fee is charged. It is five miles to the top, with an eight percent grade most of the way. A parking lot is just shy of the summit, with a gatehouse, now called Whiteface Castle, that was built with the rubble from roadway construction. Inside is a gift shop, and some of the highest plumbing in the state of New York. The road was originally commissioned in 1929 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, then the governor of New York. When he returned for the opening dedication of the road in 1935, he was the president of the United States. Due to his physical disabilities, he was not able to walk the steps of the 1,000-foot-long ridge trail from the parking lot to the summit. As a result, it is said, he mandated that accommodations be made for disabled veterans to get to the summit. Over the following two years, a 425-foot-long tunnel was bored from the parking lot, straight into the mountain, leading to an elevator that rises 276 feet to the summit. The Olympic Regional Development Authority operates Whiteface Mountain, as it was the main venue for downhill skiing events during the Olympics.