The Confluence Trail, part of the

Madison County, Illinois Madison County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a part of the Metro East in southern Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 264,776, making it the eighth-most populous county in Illinois and the most popu ...

Transit (MCT) bikeways network, is a bike trail between Granite City and

Alton, Illinois Alton ( ) is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the River Bend area in the Metro-East region of the ...

's Russell Commons Park. The majority of the trail is paved asphalt on top of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

levee system. The trail is part of the

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

metro area's

Confluence Greenway In 1997, with support from The McKnight Foundation, a group of non-profit organizations led by Trailnet formed a partnership to plan and implement the Confluence Greenway. The Confluence Greenway was planned as a system of parks, conservation and r ...

Background

Points of interest along the trail include the

Clark Bridge The Clark Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge across the Mississippi River between West Alton, Missouri and Alton, Illinois. Named after explorer William Clark like the bridge it replaced, the cable-stayed bridge opened in 1994. It carries U.S. R ...

in Alton, the at

Melvin Price Locks and Dam Melvin Price Locks and Dam is a dam and two locks at river mile 200.78 on the Upper Mississippi River, about north of Saint Louis, Missouri. The collocated , explains the structure and its engineering. Background Construction began in 1979, the m ...

, the

Lewis and Clark State Historic Site The Lewis and Clark State Historic Site opened in 2002 and is owned and operated by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Division of Historic Preservation (formerly Illinois Historic Preservation Agency). The site, located in Hartford, ...

, the confluence of the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

Rivers, the Chain of Rocks Canal,

Chouteau Island Chouteau Island ( ), situated approximately due north of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, and approximately south of the confluence of the Missouri River and Mississippi River, is one of a cluster of three islands: Chouteau Island, Ga ...

and the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge (former

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

crossing). The Lewis and Clark Confluence Tower is also located directly on the trail.

References

Bike paths in Illinois Tourist attractions in Madison County, Illinois {{MadisonCountyIL-geo-stub