__NOTOC__ The Great American Rail-Trail is a cross-country

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 ...

in the United States. The trail will run between

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

in the east and the state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

in the west. The planned trail is already more than 53% complete, with over 2,000 completed miles on the ground. The trail runs through 12 states and the District of Columbia, and will be within of 50 million Americans. The work is being facilitated by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. The Great American Rail-Trail is composed of over 150 existing multi-use trails with about 90 gaps to be filled. The project was launched in May 2019.

Route

The trail overlaps several long distance rail trails for part or all of their route. From west to east, they include: * Olympic Discovery Trail, Washington *

Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail The Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, formerly known as the John Wayne Pioneer Trail and the Iron Horse Trail, is a rail trail that spans most of the U.S. state of Washington. It follows the former railway roadbed of the Chicago, Milwaukee, ...

, Washington *

Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes is a rail trail in the northwest United States, in northern Idaho. It follows the former Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way from Mullan, a mountain mining town near the Montana border, westward to Plummer, a to ...

, Idaho *Olympian Trail, Montana *Headwaters Trail System, Montana *Casper Rail Trail, Wyoming *

Cowboy Trail The Cowboy Trail is a rail trail in northern Nebraska. It is a multi-use recreational trail suitable for bicycling, walking and horseback riding. It occupies an abandoned Chicago and North Western Railway corridor. When complete, the trail will ...

, Nebraska * Cedar Valley Trail, Iowa *

Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park The Hennepin Canal State Trail, also just called the Hennepin Canal, is an abandoned waterway in northwest Illinois, between the Mississippi River at Rock Island and the Illinois River near Hennepin. The entire canal is listed on the National R ...

, Illinois *Illinois and Michigan Canal Trail, Illinois * Nickel Plate Trail, Indiana *

Cardinal Greenway The Cardinal Greenway (TGC) is a multi-use recreational network combining a rail trail and an on-street route that together cross and five counties — in east central Indiana. The greenway, which was designated a National Recreation Trail i ...

, Indiana *

Little Miami Scenic Trail The Little Miami Scenic Trail is the fourth longest paved trail in the United States, running through five southwestern counties in the state of Ohio. The multi-use rail trail sees heavy recreational use by hikers and bicyclists, as well as the ...

, Ohio *

Ohio to Erie Trail The Ohio to Erie Trail is a dedicated multi-use trail for non-motorized vehicles that traverses the U.S. state of Ohio, from southwest to northeast, crossing of regional parks, nature preserves, and rural woodland. Construction began in 1991, wi ...

, Ohio *

Panhandle Trail The Panhandle Trail is a rail trail in southern Pennsylvania and the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia. It occupies an abandoned railroad corridor that had been known as the Panhandle route which has been converted to a bicycle and walking trail ...

, West Virginia *

Great Allegheny Passage The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) is a rail trail between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland. Together with the C&O Canal towpath, the GAP is part of a route between Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., that is popular with through ...

, Pennsylvania and Maryland *C&O Towpath Trail, Maryland *

Capital Crescent Trail The Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) is a , shared-use rail trail that runs from Georgetown in Washington, D.C., to Bethesda, Maryland. An extension of the trail from Bethesda to Silver Spring along a route formerly known as the Georgetown Branch ...

, Maryland and D.C.

References

Notes

Citations

General references

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External links