The Baltimore & Annapolis Trail is a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, whi ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The trail starts at Boulter's Way in Arnold and ends near

Baltimore Light Rail Baltimore Light RailLink (formerly Baltimore Light Rail, and also known simply as the "Light Rail") is a light rail system serving Baltimore, Maryland, United States, as well as its surrounding suburbs. It is operated by the Maryland Transit A ...

's Cromwell Station in

Glen Burnie Glen Burnie is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. The population of Glen Burnie was 67,639 at ...

. Starting near

Annapolis Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

Jonas Green Park Jonas Green Park is a public recreation area on the Severn River owned and operated by Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The park sits at the east end of the Naval Academy Bridge on Maryland Route 450 just outside the city of Annapolis. The former s ...

, the trail passes (northward) through Arnold, Severna Park, Millersville,

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

, and

. The Baltimore & Annapolis Trail follows the route of the

Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad was an American railroad of central Maryland built in the 19th century. The railroad, the second to serve Annapolis, ran between Annapolis and Clifford along the north shore of the Severn River. From Clifford ...

from which it derives its name. Proposed in 1972 by Jim Hague, it opened on Oct 7, 1990 as the second rail trail in Maryland. In June 1996, the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail became part of the

East Coast Greenway The East Coast Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle route between Maine and Florida along the East Coast of the United States. In 2020, the Greenway received over 50 million visits. The nonprofit East Coast Greenway Alliance was created in 1991. ...

–from

Calais, Maine Calais is a city in Washington County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 3,079, making Calais the third least-populous city in Maine (after Hallowell and Eastport). The city has three Canada–US border cro ...

Key West, Florida Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Isla ...

. The trail is part of the

American Discovery Trail The American Discovery Trail is a system of recreational trails and roads that collectively form a coast-to-coast hiking and biking trail across the mid-tier of the United States. Horses can also be ridden on most of this trail. The coastal tra ...

–a trail from the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Trail description

Built on a former rail line through the suburban region between Annapolis and Baltimore the trail is a paved linear park that encompasses . The trail winds through parks, neighborhoods and natural wooded areas providing scenic views of

trees In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are u ...

streams A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

and many historical points. Two of the major stops on the trail are Severna Park at mile 4.8, and Glen Burnie at mile 12.7. The trail also goes by the

Marley Station Mall Marley Station Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Opened in 1987, it was expanded in 1994 and 1996. The mall has 130 stores on 2 floors, a movie theater, and 5 anchor spaces. JCPenney, Macy's, and Golds Gym serve as the ma ...

and the Ranger Station. Along the trail are

historical marker A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...

s labeled A to Z, which correspond to the Guide to Historical Markers on the B&A Trail, written by park volunteer Barry Miller. The historical markers were designed and placed as an

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Sc ...

service project by William Brian Sanders of Boy Scout Troop No. 1785 (of Pasadena, Maryland) in 1993. The A marker is near the Annapolis end of the trail at the Winchester Station House, mile 0.1. Marker Z, at mile 13.3, is for the Sawmill Branch, which was a source of water and power for residents in the early 18th century. The historic markers illustrate the communities the railroad helped develop between Baltimore and Annapolis, and the individual achievements of people within these communities. The trail also has

switch box A KVM switch (with KVM being an abbreviation for "keyboard, video, and mouse") is a hardware device that allows a user to control multiple computers from one or more sets of keyboards, video monitors, and mice. Name Switches to connect mul ...

es and sections of

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

lining the trail. The trail is lined with flowerbeds and

kiosk Historically, a kiosk () was a small garden pavilion open on some or all sides common in Iran, Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and in the Ottoman Empire from the 13th century onward. Today, several examples of this type of kiosk still exist ...

s and includes a Planet Walk sponsored by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

. The Planet Walk is a linear museum with educational displays for each

planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

and the

sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. The main scenery around the park is forested land, and it contains several bridges. It is also paralleled by a

Baltimore Gas and Electric Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) is a subsidiary of the Exelon Corporation and Maryland’s largest gas and electric utility. BGE earlier had created the holding company Constellation Energy in 1999. Constellation Energy was acquired by ...

distribution line for almost all of its length. The trail ends in the north at Glen Burnie near the intersection of Maryland Routes 176 and 648, where it connects to the BWI Trail Loop, a loop around the

Baltimore–Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport , commonly referred to as BWI or BWI Marshall, is an international airport in the Eastern United States serving mainly Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. With Dulles Internatio ...

. The right-of-way for the former railroad continues to the north as the

, which begins in the south at Cromwell Station. Since 1998, the trail has hosted the popula
B&A Trail Marathon and Half Marathon
each spring, which draws approximately 225 marathoners and 650 half marathoners.

History of the railroad

The trail derives its name from the last name the railroad line used before ceasing operations. The railroad started as the Annapolis and Baltimore Short Line on March 9, 1887, though it was more commonly known as the Annapolis Short Line. In 1921 it became the North Shore line of the

Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway (WB&A) was an American railroad of central Maryland and Washington, D.C., built in the 19th and 20th century. The WB&A absorbed two older railroads, the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad and ...

and in 1935 it began its final incarnation as the B&A. The railroad ended passenger service in 1950 and freight service stopped going south of Glen Burnie when a trestle washed out in 1969. The property deteriorated and became an eyesore. Public interest in a linear park began in the mid-1970s and in 1979 Anne Arundel County purchased the wide corridor for the purpose of creating a rail trail and park. The WB&A's main line right of way also serves as a rail trail, the

Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Trail The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Trail (WB&A) is a long discontinuous rail trail from Lanham to Odenton in Maryland. Despite its name, it does not actually connect with Washington, D.C., Annapolis or Baltimore; its name is taken from th ...

References

External links

Baltimore and Annapolis Trail ParkBaltimore and Annapolis Trail Park Map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baltimore and Annapolis Trail Rail trails in Maryland American Discovery Trail East Coast Greenway National Recreation Trails in Maryland Parks in Anne Arundel County, Maryland Transportation in Anne Arundel County, Maryland