The Burke–Gilman Trail is a

rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, 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 rail corr ...

in King County, Washington. The multi-use recreational trail is part of the King County Regional Trail System and occupies an abandoned Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway (SLS&E) corridor. A portion of the Burke–Gilman trail is managed by the City of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. The trail begins at 11th Avenue NW in Ballard and follows along the Lake Washington Ship Canal and north along Lake Washington, designated as ending in Bothell.

Route

The trail is a substantial part of the of signed bike routes in Seattle and the of trails in the King County Trails System. A segment of the Burke–Gilman portion, opened in July 2005, runs for from NW 60th Street and Seaview Avenue NW to the Ballard Locks. The main trail resumes at 11th Avenue NW and NW 45th Street and runs to Blyth Park in Bothell. There, it becomes the Sammamish River Trail segment, which parallels the Sammamish River for to Redmond. The Burke–Gilman trail runs along the Fremont Cut, Lake Union (an old freight depot remains visible at the foot of Stone Way), and through the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

campus. After passing the University Village shopping center, the trail heads up through northeast neighborhoods, alongside the Hawthorne Hills, Laurelhurst and

Windermere Windermere (historically Winder Mere) is a ribbon lake in Cumbria, England, and part of the Lake District. It is the largest lake in England by length, area, and volume, but considerably smaller than the List of lakes and lochs of the United Ki ...

neighborhoods; through the Sand Point neighborhood, passing Magnuson Park, then alongside Lake Washington from just before the Matthews Beach and Cedar Park neighborhoods of the former Lake City, continuing on through Lake Forest Park and Kenmore to Bothell. The trail throughout is nearly level with few large intersection crossings — it is a former railroad right-of-way. The trail runs between Ballard and Tracy Owen Station in Kenmore (its initial eastern end), or to Blyth Park. The Seattle Parks Department considers the Burke–Gilman segment of the trail to end in Kenmore; while King County considers that the segments divide in Bothell,. The total distance from Golden Gardens Park to Bothell, including the proposed "missing link" through Ballard, is .

Sammamish River Trail

At Blyth Park in Bothell the trail becomes the Sammamish River Trail and continues for to Marymoor Park, Redmond, on Lake Sammamish. With the completion of a connector trail through Marymoor Park in May 2009 the trail network continues to the city of Issaquah via the East Lake Sammamish Trail for another . The trail is over the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway (SLS&E) line and in conjunction with Issaquah's Rainier Trail, Preston Trail, and the Preston Snoqualmie Trail. The Snoqualmie Falls-North Bend link of SLS&E has become the line of the Northwest Railway Museum. The SLS&E terminated just beyond North Bend in Sallal Prairie. Users of the extensions can continue on the regional trail network at the Snoqualmie Valley Trail in North Bend and connect with the Iron Horse State Park at Rattlesnake Lake. With the addition of the connector, the longest unbroken segment of the trail currently extends 42 miles.

Extensions

, there are extensions of the Burke–Gilman Trail at its western end: connecting the short and long segments between the Ballard Locks and 11th Avenue, and a northern extension along Shilshole Bay from NW 60th Street to Golden Gardens Park, and planning for connecting between the Ballard Locks and downtown Ballard at 11th Avenue NW and NW 45th Street. A major point of contention since the 1990s regarding the remaining "missing link" project was the industrial nature of the Salmon Bay waterfront, through which this portion of the trail would pass. Local business owners voiced concerns about the safety and liability issues inherent in the convergence of Ballard Terminal Railroad trains, trucks, cyclists, and pedestrians. A Citizens group and the city claimed the dangers were being exaggerated. The trail overall can at times be busy and even crowded. , plans to construct the section remain on hold due to design revisions and legal challenges. A railroad crossing on the trail under the Ballard Bridge was the site of 39 crashes and incidents between 2015 and 2020. The crossing was replaced in October 2023, shortly after the city council approved its removal. The city council included a routing along Leary Way instead of Shilshole Avenue, where industrial businesses had opposed the trail's construction, in a transportation levy that will be placed on the November 2024 ballot.

History

The trail can trace its origins to the founding of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway on April 15, 1885, by ten men headed by judge Thomas Burke and Daniel Gilman. In its heyday, Burke and Gilman's road extended from Downtown Seattle north to Arlington and east to Rattlesnake Prairie above Snoqualmie Falls. Taken over by the

Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...

around 1890, the line became part of the

Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroad ...

in 1970, and was abandoned in 1971. On August 19, 1978 the first of the right-of-way from Seattle's Gas Works Park to Kenmore's Tracy Owen Station was opened as a public trail after seven years of advocacy and negotiations and named after the founders of the railroad. A two-mile section of the trail within Lake Forest Park was temporarily closed for redevelopment from June 2011 to February 2012.

Neighborhoods

The trail intersects the following: * Seattle neighborhoods from western terminus east and north: ** Ballard ** Fremont ** Northlake (also known as south Wallingford) ** University District ** Trail runs alongside: *** University Village

shopping center A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

*** Hawthorne Hills, Laurelhurst and Windermere neighborhoods *** Sand Point neighborhood, passing Magnuson Park ** Lake City district of neighborhoods *** Matthews Beach *** Cedar Park * Suburban Seattle towns, continuing northeast, east and then south: ** Lake Forest Park ** Kenmore ** Bothell ** Woodinville ** Redmond

References

Bibliography

* * *
Speidel provides a substantial bibliography with extensive primary sources.