to Washington state, covering more than 3,700 miles-1,900 of which are existing rail trails. | Photo: Milo Bateman / Rails-to-Trails Conservancy The Great American Rail-TrailĪnnounced on May 8, 2019, the Great American Rail-Trail will span 12 states, from Washington D.C. The Panhandle Trail, located in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. With so much ground covered, RTC decided it could finally move forward with its ultimate goal: connecting the rail trails into one, continuous mega trail.Īnd, with that, the Great American Rail-Trail was born. “Our founders had a great belief that if this rail trail movement really took off, one day there would be an opportunity to connect them all,” says Liz Thorstensen, vice president of trail development at RTC.Īnd it did take off: Since its foundation, RTC has facilitated more than 20,000 miles of rail trails, with an additional 8,000 miles currently in the process of being added. By founding RTC, the two men aimed to both preserve more green space and facilitate a sense of community by connecting the country through a large network of public trails.
| Photo: Gary Toriello / Rails-to-Trails ConservancyĪfter learning about these forgotten tracks, Harnik and Burwell not only saw potential in the railroads, but in the towns and communities that surrounded them. Former railroad tracks turned into a public trail in Washington. Today, it is estimated that there are thousands of miles of unused railroad tracks across the U.S. Since the 1930s-when train usage began to decline and automobiles became the preferred method of transportation-the number of abandoned railroad corridors has steadily increased. Rails to trailsįounded in 1986 by Peter Harnik and David Burwell, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) is an American nonprofit dedicated to turning former railroad lines into public trails. And I’m willing to bet that there are few places where this is more pertinent than along the Great American Rail-Trail. Our far-reaching, cross-country travels give us opportunities to see the small details that make up the entire fabric of our country. I stopped where people stopped or gathered, I listened and looked and felt, and in the process had a picture of my country the accuracy of which was impaired only by my own shortcomings.” John Steinbeck wrote in Travels with Charley in Search of America: “Once I traveled about the country in an old bakery wagon. From our earliest ancestors, who traversed continents on foot, to the American pioneers, who wagoned west in hopes of finding better land, to modern-day frequent fliers, who repeatedly make their own pilgrimages, 35,000 feet up in the air, covering massive expanses of land seems to be a fundamental part of the human psyche. The urge to travel elsewhere is not a new sensation.
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