June 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 68

GREAT AMERICAN RAIL-TRAIL

PHOTO BY DAVID V. JOHNSON

Sunset over Iowa's High Trestle Trail,
which runs from Ankeny to Woodward in
central Iowa.

It's fitting that in 2019 we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the
Golden Spike, which marked the
completion of the transcontinental
railroad. Like that famed route, the
expansive trail will chart a course
to connect the country, spanning
12 states and the District of Columbia. This exceptional, uniquely
American experience will directly serve approximately 50 million
people within 50 miles of the route,
as well as the millions of others
from across the country and the
world who will meet America's diverse people and explore its diverse
places - from parks and green
space to historical sites and renowned landmarks - via the trail.
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC)
has been working closely with local
trail partners, state agencies, elected
officials and other interested groups
to develop the preferred route of the
Great American Rail-Trail, which
will connect more than 125 existing
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trails - many of them built along
former railroad corridors - between
Washington, D.C., and Washington
state. While the route is more than
52 percent complete today, RTC is
providing the national vision, leadership and expertise to ensure connectivity across state lines and to bring
the resources necessary to close approximately 1,700 miles of gaps in
the trail.

Turning a Vision
into a Movement
Founded in 1986, RTC has recognized the potential in America for
a cross-country trail almost from its
earliest beginnings.
" Since the late 1980s, RTC has
been tracking the possibility of a
trail that connects the country. At
one point, we had a map of the
United States on the wall where we
literally tracked every new rail-trail
project with a pin and began to see
a coast-to-coast rail-trail emerge

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before our eyes, " says Marianne
Fowler, RTC's senior strategist for
policy advocacy, and an employee
of RTC for more than 30 years.
As new trails emerged across the
country, RTC closely monitored
the progress of trail development
nationwide, advocating for federal
policies that continue to provide
the largest funding sources for
trails, and for state and local policies that encourage and bolster the
trails movement. The completion
of the iconic route remained an
internal drumbeat for the organization for decades.
Analyses of RTC's GIS data in
2017 revealed several potential
routes for the Great American
Rail-Trail that were more than 50
percent complete, the threshold
RTC had long set for measuring
the trail's viability. With that information in hand, RTC began
formally assessing the route and
publicly committed to the project
in January 2019.
From the nation's capital - just
a stone's throw away from the National Mall - the Great American
Rail-Trail will head through Maryland, the Northern Panhandle of
West Virginia and the southwest
corner of Pennsylvania, continuing
through the midwestern heartland
of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois before reaching the Mississippi River. Across the majestic river and
through central Iowa, the trail will
travel westward as the pioneers
once did, and through Nebraska
and Wyoming, where the route will
pivot northward through the Rocky
Mountain states of Montana and
Idaho before traversing Washington
on its way to Seattle's Puget Sound.

June 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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