Tag Archives: Great American Rail-Trail

Biking Tours, Outdoors Adventures, Sustainable Travel, US Destinations

Railtowns, Canaltowns, Rivertowns, GhostTowns – Now Trail Towns

November 2, 2026 krubin723 Leave a comment

*One of the most scenic sections of the Ohio-Erie Trail: a horsedrawn Amish carriage approaches the Bridge of Dreams © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

There are railtowns, canaltowns, rivertowns, and to avoid the fate of becoming ghosttowns with the loss of railroads, canal and riverboats, and factories, many of these places are looking to become Trail Towns, serving the thousands streaming by on the leisure trails that have replaced the rail lines and towpaths.

The trails are what bring people to these towns, revitalizing their economy and community, as our Rails to Trails Conservancy group of media people reporting on the progress of the 3,700-mile-long Great American Rail-Trail discover.

As we set out on a newly repaved portion of the Ohio-Erie trail, we meet a couple from Wallisburg, Ontario, Canada. They spark our attention considering the plummeting (as much as 25%) in Canadian visits to the USA. What brought them, we ask. “Biking.” Why here? “Well, we did the Erie Canalway [353 miles from Buffalo to Albany, New York], and the Pittsburgh to DC [350 miles on the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O, the most complete stage of the Great American Rail-Trail so far], so this was next,” said the couple who, we learn, got engaged on a bike trip.

A couple from Ontario, Canada on a six-day trip biking 326 miles from Cleveland to Columbus on the Ohio to Erie Trail. “We don’t have a plan. It’s easy to get services.” © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

They never book a hotel more than four hours in advance (and estimate they are spending $200/day), but check out their app to see what is convenient to where they are on the trail. “We don’t have a plan,” Mike said. “It’s easy to get services.” In Columbus, they stayed in a Rooms Plus just off the Ohio-Erie trail and close to the stadium where they took in a Blue Jackets baseball game. They also remarked that in contrast to the hostility shown by their homeland by the White House, they find “the people of America are wonderful,” adding they frequently are offered free beer and pop when locals learn they have come from Canada. “People are good.”

They are taking six days to bike the Ohio to Erie Trail, that connects the Ohio River to Lake Erie, 326 miles from Cleveland to Columbus to Cincinnati.

We set out on the newly repaved section of the Ohio-to-Erie Trail, one of more than 150 trails that are part of the Great American Rail-Trail that will connect Washington DC to Washington State © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“Our mission is to build, maintain, and promote this world-class trail corridor, encouraging outdoor recreation, healthy lifestyles, sustainable transportation, and a deeper appreciation for Ohio’s people, history, and natural beauty,” the website exclaims (https://www.ohiotoerietrail.org/).

The trail – one of more than 150 trails that are being linked together to create the Great American Rail-Trail from Washington DC to Washington State – is 245 miles paved, 49 crushed stone, 20 miles on-road and 10-miles on street. Where we start our ride and meet this couple has been newly repaved, and just behind us, we see where a new section of the trail is being laid, replacing having to go on-road.

*Sharing the Ohio to Erie Trail with an Amish carriage © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Soon we come to a most scenic and interesting section: it goes through an Amish community and we find ourselves sharing the path with horse-drawn carriages (the trail was purposely made wide enough to accommodate the carriages). Our rest stop is just before a marvelously named “Bridge of Dreams” covered bridge, where Raymond Weaver treats us to freshly baked and utterly divine pretzels from his family’s Weaver’s Farm & Pretzel shop. (“Better than New York’s,” I tell him to his delight.)

*The Bridge of Dreams on the Ohio to Erie Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

At Gambier, on the Kokosing Gap Trail, we come to an absolutely magnificent steam locomotive, train and red caboose (a volunteer repaints it every summer). I feel like a giddy kid climbing up into the cab and ringing the brass bell.

*Such fun to climb into the cab of a steam locomotive in Gambier, on the Kokosing Gap Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

I have been thinking that the creation of these rail-trails that connect and build communities reminds me of how “Johnny Appleseed” went from town to town planting apple seeds, and, amazingly, as we enter Mount Vernon, I see a historic marker that notes Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman had property and apple orchards in this very place.

*A historic steam train is now an attraction at Gambier, on the Kokosing Gap Trail, part of the Ohio to Erie Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

I am so intrigued, I learn from the Knox County Historical Society, that “as a young man, Johnny traveled through New York and Pennsylvania in the late 1700’s, coming into Ohio during the early 1800’s. He made it his life’s work to plant apple trees so that the soon-to-arrive pioneers would have a plentiful supply of apples at their new home. He set up his nurseries at strategic spots so that he could sell or trade his young trees to the newcomers and then move on to new unsettled areas. Many of these orchards were established throughout central Ohio, especially around Mount Vernon, Coshocton, Mansfield, Ashland and Wooster.

“He is said to have voted in Mount Vernon’s first election about 1806. Until 1828 he owned the lot now occupied by the tire store at 401 South Main St., as well as the adjacent lot toward the Kokosing River. When he needed a new supply of apple seeds, he would walk from Mount Vernon to Pittsburgh, then fill several canoes with sacks of seeds, lash the canoes together, then travel down the Ohio River to Marietta, up the Muskingum River to Zanesville, then up the Walhonding and Kokosing back to Mount Vernon – quite a trip, indeed!”

The story touches me greatly – his life was about community and sustainability, lessons that we can certainly apply today.

It is fun to discover Mount Vernon, one of the first five Trail Towns designated by Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

*In Mount Vernon, one of Ohio’s first trail towns, we visit the Woodward Opera House, built in 1851, the* *“oldest authentic operating opera house in the country”* *© Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We are entranced by how charming Mount Vernon is and visit the Woodward Opera House, the “oldest authentic operating opera house in the country” (built in 1851, the balcony added in the 1880s, restored in 1997 and opened 2019, it has a certain percentage of original architecture to qualify), where a history lecture is going on. We overnight in an authentically reconstructed Grand Hotel, owned by Nazarene University.

*A lecture at the Woodward Opera House, Mount Vernon © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

It’s about repurposing not just obsolete railroads, canalways, depots and ports, but the buildings and structures, factories and warehouses – that instead of demolishing decaying wrecks are being reclaimed, repurposed and rebranded so they benefit the community, and in the process, build community.

A chimney stack in a former glass factory has been repurposed into the Rastin Observation Tower at Ariel Foundation Park, Mount Vernon, alongside the Heart of Ohio Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

So just as we head out from Mount Vernon on the Heart of Ohio trail (a16.9-mile segment of the Ohio-Erie Trail), bound for Columbus (a 50-mile ride on trails that are part of the Ohio to Erie Trail), we come to Ariel Foundation Park, a trailside park developed from an old glass factory that manufactured car windshields. The 280-ft. tall chimney stack that served PPG from 1951 until it closed in 1976 has been repurposed instead of being demolished, and turned into a marvelous attraction, the Rastin Observation Tower.

*The view from 280-ft. above the Heart of Ohio trail at Ariel Foundation Park, developed from a former glass factory © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

You climb a protected spiral staircase, 224 steps up to the deck 140 ft. above ground (boy do you feel it), for an incredible view of the countryside. There is an impressive entranceway constructed that prevents children from accessing on their own. It is truly an experience.

A marker notes that the Heart of Ohio Trail was built on the CANC railroad line that ran from Cleveland to Columbus through Mt. Vernon, the TNOC railroad that ran from Toledo to central Ohio. The Centerburg train station was finished in 1873, connecting the two rail lines. Use of the tracks ended between 1960-1970. The A trail committee began purchasing the railroad line in 2000 and finally acquired it in 2005.

*“It’s all downhill from here! The high point on the Heart of Ohio trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We come to a monument that marks the highpoint of the Heart of Ohio Trail, at 1,285 ft. (they joke that it is all downhill from here and that is more or less the case). Soon after, we come to Centerburg, where a sign on the trail marks the mid-point of the 326-mile-long Ohio-Erie Trail.

*Coming into Centerburg on the Heart of Ohio Trail, one of Ohio’s first Trail Towns. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We are greeted by many of the activists who are turning Centerburg into one of Ohio’s first five “Trail Towns.” Centerburg received a $1 million Transportation Alternatives Grant that will pay for a short connector into its town center so that cyclists (some 40,000 pass this point, which they know because of counters in the pavement) who might otherwise just pose for a photo, will spend time and money in the shops and services catering to the visitors.

Cyclists love to take a photo at the Centerburg marker of the mid-point of the Ohio to Erie Trail, now a Trail Town, cyclists have an incentive to go into the downtown to dine and shop © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Melinda Vonstein, Greenways Planning Studio Lead for the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, has been instrumental in creating Ohio’s Trail Towns program, that launched this year with the first five towns and next year will add five more.

She tells us that several towns came to the Commission to ask to develop Trail Towns program.

Columbus’ Trail Towns program was modeled after the Great Allegheny Passage’s created by The Progress Fund (https://www.trailtowns.org/guide/). The group worked for four years to come up with a framework that would suit Ohio.

The Trail Town Program® was created by The Progress Fund more than 17 years ago and was the first to test and prove the idea of multiplying the economic impact along trails like the C&O and Great Allegheny Passage. Visitors are an economic engine: every $1 spent by a visitor has a $3 impact on the local economy.

“It starts by thinking regionally: a world-class trail needs amenities along its entire stretch, and towns working together can create a much broader impact. Not every project looks the same. Every region has its own strengths and challenges. But we share the insights and lessons we’ve learned along the way in our free Trail Town guide” (www.trailtowns.org/guide).

[Indeed, even the ghost towns are getting a new lease on life because of rail trails. There is a Ghost Town Tour Trail – 54 miles long featuring a 32-mile continuous loop from Blacklick, PA to Ebensburg, PA, and 20-mile C and I Extension – where a new Creekside Cabin opened in Strongstown, assisted by Pennsylvania’s The Progress Fund, which is now boosted by AirBnB tours and can be booked through www.airbnb.com/h/creeksidecabinsgtt (https://www.cambriaconservationrecreation.com/ghost-town-trail/)]

The Ohio to Erie Trail is one of more than 150 trails that when connected, will form the 3,700-mile long Great American Rail-Trail, from Washington DC to Washington State © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Ohio’s first Trail Towns are in the outskirts of Columbus, the 14^th largest city in the US and the largest city on the Great American Rail-Trail. The city is working to create links and connections to the trails, including adding bus services with bike racks so people can shuttle to and from the trails instead of doubling back and a new bike trail map has curated routes accessed on Linkus through the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA).

They are working to create their own Trail Towns site but for now, information is available on CentralOhioGreenways.com.

For more information on the Great American Rail-Trail, visit: https://www.railstotrails.org/site/greatamericanrailtrail/

Next: ‘It Was a Choice’: Columbus, Ohio Allocates $250 Million to Build 150 Miles of Biking, Walking Trails

Grassroots Volunteerism Builds the Great American Rail-Trail

‘One Mile at a Time.’ New Trails Are Links in Building the 3,700-Mile Great American Rail-Trail

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Biking Tours, Nature and Wildlife, Outdoors Adventures, See America, US Destinations

‘One Mile at a Time.’ New Trails Are Links in Building the 3,700-Mile Great American Rail-Trail

October 26, 2026 krubin723 Leave a comment

Aaron Dodds, program manager for Jefferson Soil Water Conservation District points to Hellbender Preserve’s “Ghost Wall” where Irish immigrant and freed Black Americans tunnel workers would carve their initials into rock, that mysteriously appear and disappear © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarnandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

Within this one mile that cuts through Ohio forest, there are stories: reclusive Hellbender salamanders that grow to 28 inches long; a bridge where Abraham Lincoln nearly lost his life on the way to his inauguration; a rail tunnel, slightly askew, built by warring groups of Irish immigrants; a Ghost Wall, where they carved their initials that today appear, disappear and new initials reveal themselves.

It’s only a mile long now slicing through Hellbender Preserve, but it is the first new mile of multi-use trail in Jefferson County; four more miles will soon be added. Ultimately, it will be part of a 15-mile connector along the Great American Rail-Trail, a 3,700-mile network of biking/walking trails across America, from Washington DC to Washington State.

Even the story about how the Hellbender trail was re-discovered is worthy of a novel.

This was the Old Panhandler Rail Line, but after they built a new route and bypassed this one, the 273 acre-property was abandoned in 1949 and taken over by forest.

Hellbender Preserve is only one year old – it opened on National Trails Day 2025 – and within the first six months after opening, 30,000 visited.

The “Ghost Wall” in Hellbender Preserve, where the first new mile of multi-use trail in Ohio’s Jefferson County has just opened and eventually will connect to the Great American Rail-Trail, 3,700-miles across the USA from Washington DC to Washington State © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarnandnear.com

“The trail builds community, provides an opportunity to meet, get out. We’re in the Rust Belt where healthcare isn’t a priority. This is passive way to get out, get fit,” Aaron Dodds, program manager for Jefferson Soil Water Conservation District, tells us as we walk through. “It’s great for conservation and railroad history.”

“The railroad hired Irish workers to build it because they were cheap and expendable. They came for the American Dream and carved their names and initials in the rock walls.” When they expanded the railroad from single to double track, they brought freed slaves who also carved their names. Depending on the light, you can see the names, which later disappear and other names emerge. The names come and go. They have identified 80 different names so far. That’s why they call it the Ghost Wall.

Initials in the “Ghost Wall” in Hellbender Preserve, where the first new mile of multi-use trail in Ohio’s Jefferson County has just opened and eventually will connect to the Great American Rail-Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarnandnear.com

“The Irish were cheap, expendable. They first used old canal diggers from County Cork (Corkonians) and then Far Downers (from farther down Ireland). They hated each other.” They lived in separate camps and worked different sides of the tunnel. But when they came together, they found they were four feet off.

“A war broke out. They went at each other with pick axes. The Corkonians raided Far Downers, chased them to the hillsides, then throw them off.”

*The tunnel which triggered a war between factions of Irish railroad workers is now part of the trail through Hellbender Preserve © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarnandnear.com*

Far Downers broke into the Steubenville Armory and rolled out a cannon to Market Street, and fired on the Corkonians. The governor called in the state militia – it took four days to quell the violence. In the end, they figured out how to link up the tunnel (it is only slightly askew today). “It wasn’t worth a war.” Dodds wears a t-shirt with the newspaper clipping printed on the back,

We come to the Lincoln Bridge and Dodds tells of a critical historical event that was almost lost to history – how Abraham Lincoln, traveling by rail to his inauguration, got stuck in a severe rainstorm that damaged this bridge and the passengers were told to walk over in case the train would have caused it to collapse; he nearly lost his life as he walked, holding his sons’ hands when he fell and was nearly swept into the water.

*“Lincoln Bridge,” on the former railroad line, where the president-elect nearly lost his life and rebuilt to serve Union troops during the Civil War © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarnandnear.com*

Lincoln made it to Fort Steuben in Steubenville where he gave a speech on the train platform – the first time against a backdrop of seven states succeeding from the union in reaction to his election.

“Now Steubenville didn’t love Lincoln,” Dodds related. “He was described as ugly and an awful speaker (with a high-pitched voice). That is what was reported when in fact, he was ‘workshopping’ his inaugural address,” considered one of his most important, in which he set the Constitutional and moral framework for keeping the Union together.

Remarkably, Lincoln’s speech was forgotten until they began searching for the provenance of the land to acquire the preserve. “This event was lost to history, but a railroad vice president had collected newspaper clippings” which reported the event “and a railroad engineer atlas verified it.”

*The Steubenville Herald reported on the four-day riot by Irish tunnel workers, now part of the trail through Hellbender Preserve © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarnandnear.com*

After the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Lincoln remembered the bridge. The Battle of Bull Run was looming. Lincoln knew he needed to get Union troops to the east, so he directed that the bridge where he almost lost his life be rebuilt. It took just eight months with a massive workforce and now named for him.

The bridge is just before we enter the 970-foot long, double track tunnel. Just feet beyond the tunnel is where the trail ends for now.

This one-mile is in the middle of what will be a 15-mile-long trail; so far, they have three miles and are working to open five more.

The State of Ohio owned the land – acquired from ConRail – but was inaccessible to the public for all this time. The state didn’t even realize it owned it until 2015 when the commission did a title search in order to acquire it (and uncovered the Lincoln story). The state willingly donated the land to the commission for a multi-use trail, but it still took five more years.

Good neighbor Mike Ruthen sets out bikes for visitors to Hellbender Preserve to use and is one of the volunteers who help maintain the rail-trail which will ultimately connect to the Great American Rail-Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Mike Ruthen, whose gorgeous property along the creek is immediately adjacent to the property, puts bikes out for visitors to use and volunteers to help maintain the trail. “He saw the joy on people’s faces when they come,” Dodds said.

“One mile at a time. The trail builds community,” he said.

Hellbender Trail, https://www.traillink.com/trail/hellbender-preserve-trail/

Ribbon Cutting in Orrville

As we drive into Orrville, Ohio, we see Amish driving horse-drawn carriages, pass a Lehman’s store (everything you ever needed to buy is at Lehman’s), and the headquarters for The J.M. Smucker Company (Smucker’s!), where you see railroad tracks that come right up to the entrance.

We have come to Orrville to celebrate with Rails to Trails of Wayne County the ribbon cutting for 2.7 new miles of the Heartland Trail, a connector to the Great American Rail-Trail.

Don Noble of Rails to Trails Allegheny, with state and local leaders and Brandi Horton, Rails to Trails Conservancy’s Vice President, Communications, cut the ribbon celebrating the opening of 2.7 new miles of Ohio’s Heartland Trail which will ultimately connect to the Great American Rail-Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The new section begins at the downtown trailhead, just 3 blocks from the Orrville Historical Museum and Orville Railroad Heritage Society on Depot Street. The trail then threads northward through the downtown business district and Orrville Dog Park before connecting to the former Cleveland, Akron, and Columbus (CA&C) rail corridor near Little Chippewa Creek, then continues along the former railbed to Marshallville, terminating at Coal Bank Road.

Don Noble, Board President Rails to Trails of Wayne County, noted that along the trail in Marshallville, there is an unusual “geologic unconformity” dating from the Carboniferous Period (360–299 million years ago) when erosion removed older (Mississippian) rocks before younger (Pennsylvanian) rocks were deposited. The rare geologic feature was revealed during the construction of the railroad.

Victor Schantz of Orrville, takes a ride on the new section of Ohio’s Heartland Trail, one of more than 150 trails that will connect 3,700 miles of the Great American Rail-Trail, from Washington DC to Washington state © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Rails to Trails of Wayne County put in an application to Ohio Department of Transportation in 2020 and received $1.33 million – 58% of the total cost – but the city and donors had to come up with the rest – Ohio Clean put up $200,000; the City of Orrville, $238,000, and a foundation gave $535,000,

The group has managed to complete two sections in one year (1.7 and 1.1 miles each), from downtown Orrville north of Marshallville – a total of 7 miles in order to eventually connect to the Great American Rail-Trail.

Rails to Trails of Wayne County hopes to complete another extension of the trail that will connect it to Clinton where it will connect to the Ohio & Erie Towpath Trail, which spans 80 miles from Cleveland to Bolivar.

“This is a great day for Orrville,” Mayor Matt Plybon said. “Years ago, people saw the old railroad bed and saw what could become. This moves Orrville closer to becoming true trail town, neighbors and beyond…We welcome people who come- shop, eat, experience community, meet people. Trails may connect place but their best value is when they connect people.”

Don Noble of Rails to Trails Allegheny and Kevin Belle, Rails to Trails Conservancy’s Project Director, celebrate the opening of 2.7 new miles of the Heartland Trail, a connector to the Great American Rail-Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

As we sit together for lunch with many of the Rails to Trails of Wayne County volunteers and officials it becomes clear: It may take years before all 3,700 miles of the Great American Rail-Trail across America are connected, but every foot and every mile of trail impacts people today in tangible ways – those who live in community and those who come to visit – economically, health and wellness, building community and social connections, and pride.

Leaving Orrville, Kevin Belle, who has spent 10 years as Rails to Trails Conservancy’s Project Director for the Great American Rail-Trail, reflected that they have successfully closed 10 gaps in less than 10 years.

“They are coming more frequently now,” he said, with the pride of a new father or more accurately, a midwife who has helped in the birth of a baby. “Close the gap. Open the trail.”

The Great American Rail-Trail will extend 3,700 miles across the USA, enabling biking, walking, hiking from Washington DC to Washington State. “This is the most ambitious public lands project in generations, but unlike other projects, this is the result of the determination of regular people, groups, private donations, working in conjunction with local, state and federal government, reflected Brandi Horton, Rails to Trails Conservancy’s Vice President, Communications.

Heartland Trail, https://www.traillink.com/trail/heartland-trail-/

For more information on the Great American Rail-Trail, visit: https://www.railstotrails.org/site/greatamericanrailtrail/

Next: Railtowns, Canaltowns, Rivertowns, GhostTowns – Now Trail Towns

Grassroots Volunteerism Builds the Great American Rail-Trail

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Biking Tours, Outdoors Adventures, See America, US Destinations

Grassroots, Volunteerism Builds the Great American Rail-Trail

October 19, 2026 krubin723

The repurposed McDonald viaduct, built in 1913, is one of the highlights of biking the Montour Trail, one of more than 150 trails that will make up the 3,700-mile Great American Rail-Trail, from Washington DC to Washington State © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

Unlike the Interstate Highway, the Intercontinental Railway or the Erie Canal, the Great American Rail-Trail is being created by hundreds of local communities, organizations, agencies and volunteers, who appreciate what such recreational trails mean for quality of life, health and wellness and economic vitality.

When completed, the Great American Rail-Trail will provide 3,700 miles, from Washington DC to Washington State, of connected multiuse trails and byways for biking and walking,

More than half of the route – over 150 existing railtrails, canalways, bikeways and greenways across 12 states totaling 2100 miles – is completed, the most complete stage letting you ride 350 miles from Washington DC to Cumberland Md. on the C&O canalway, connecting to the Great Allegheny Passage from Cumberland into Pittsburgh.

Now the task falls to connect more than 80 gaps, totaling 1,600 miles, with trails.

And that’s where we start our tour with Rails to Trails Conservancy, the stewards leading some 150 partners in the project, to see for ourselves how the Great American Rail-Trail is unfolding, what is happening to bring this 40-year vision of Rails to Trails’ co-founder David Burwell to reality.

Point State Park is where the longest completed segment of the Great American Rail-Trail, 350 miles from Washington DC to Pittsburgh on the C&O Canalway and the Great Allegheny Passage ends and there is a 9.8-mile gap to get to the Montour Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

At Pittsburgh’s Point State Park we come to the place where the Great Allegheny Passage ends and the first significant gap looms: 9.8-miles along the heavily trafficked West Carson Street, sandwiched between high stone walls and rail lines hugging the riverfront, posing the problem that even if there is a will, it is hard to find a way with such constricted space.

Our Rails to Trails Conservancy group shuttles by van to the next trail on the Great American Rail-Trail (GART), the Montour, stretching 63-miles to form a necklace around the south Greater Pittsburgh Area. Julian Wolfe, Board President of Montour Trail Council, boasts that the private, nonprofit, “100 percent volunteer” trail, supported by some 1,300 dues-paying members, is the longest suburban trail in the nation.

*Montour Trail volunteers take justified pride in the legacy they have created © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Here we meet a dozen of the more than 50 volunteers who give of their time (22,000 hours a year!), expertise and money to maintain and improve the trail and close a remaining four-mile gap. To create the Montour, they had to repurpose bridges, trestles, viaducts and tunnels, and create the connector to the Panhandle Trail that provides the next stage of the GART linking Pennsylvania to West Virginia.

We meet three of the original founders who got the idea 37 years ago for the trail and acquired the abandoned rail line from the railroad in 1991. Now they are faced with new challenges: raising $3 million to repair a 1913 tunnel at mile 25 which has been closed for 10 months after the ceiling collapsed, filling a four-mile gap on the existing trail, and most challenging of all, creating that 9.8-mile connector from the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) in downtown Pittsburgh to the Montour trailhead. Once that gap is filled, it will be possible to bike all the way from Washington DC to West Virginia and the next significant gap.

The McDonald viaduct, built in 1913, on the Montour Trail. The Montour Trail Council raised $2.3 million to renovate it. Montour Trail Council President Julian Wolfe shows us a photo of the bridge, built in 1913, as it was in 1915 with a steam train going over it. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

These volunteers and advocates recognize that bikeways and greenways bring so much benefit to local communities – quality of life, health and wellness, and economic development, even increasing property values. But they also build community.

Each project has had its challenges – to pave or put down a surface; rebuild a bridge, a trestle, a tunnel; acquire land or easements; create the infrastructure of parking lots, restrooms, signage and safe crossings.

*Biking through tunnels on the Montour Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

What we see in the volunteers and officials and organizers is the pure joy and pride in creating these trails that have such impact on their neighbors today and for generations to come, and the satisfaction that comes knowing this is their legacy.

We bike the Montour Trail from mile zero to mile 16.6 where we will take the connector to the Panhandle Trail. But first, we ride just beyond the connector to the McDonald viaduct, a key attraction on the trail and point of considerable pride for the Montour Trail Council. The council raised $2.3 million to renovate it. Wolfe shows us a photo of the viaduct, built in 1913, as it was in 1915 with a steam train going over it (www.traillink.com/trail/montour-trail).

“When trails were first proposed, a lot of people say it will be a nuisance and don’t want it in my backyard. But when it is done, they see their property values increase with the development that comes with the trail, because people love the amenities,” Dave Borrebach, a long-serving board member and volunteer leader for the Montour Trail Council, tells us as we tour the McDonald viaduct. “Coraopolis is deprived of greenspace, so the trail gives the community the opportunity to get to nature. Trails represent making connection – municipalities, private, contractors – all elements brought together, carefully, blended. Continuity of organization is key – putting the pieces together takes a tremendous amount of time.”

The Montour Trail, he said, is the culmination of “37 years of effort, little by little, persistence and luck…The Founding Fathers [of Montour] organized quickly, made the right decisions of time, funding, legal counsel (an expert in rail law). It all had to come together.”

We take the Panhandle Connector and drop down from the Montour Trail, passing under the viaduct for a great view onto the Panhandle Trail.

*Bikers stop for lunch at Paradise on Panhandle, in a repurposed train depot on the Panhandle Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We stop at the Paradise on Panhandle for lunch, in the repurposed train depot beside the trail.

There is a historic marker – one of 20 put up by Trails Across America, another project of Rails to Trails Conservancy – that notes, “Coal Mining. As early as 1903, bituminous coal from local mines shipped from here on Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway.”

*Biking the Panhandle Trail, from Pennsylvania to West Virginia © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Fortified by a delightful lunch (and delicious ice cream), we go back on the trail and find ourselves at a marker between Pennsylvania and West Virginia, where we continue on for four miles before we come to the Panhandle Trail’s end (www.traillink.com/trail/panhandle-trail).

*Crossing from Pennsylvania to West Virginia on the Panhandle Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We soon face another critical gap: the Market Street Bridge linking Weirton, West Virginia, and Steubenville, Ohio, which carried bikes and walkers in addition to four lanes of cars. It was closed indefinitely on December 21, 2023 after routine inspections revealed broken strands and significant deterioration in the 1906 steel suspension bridge’s cable anchoring system.

The bridge is a case in point of the challenge faced in building the Great American Rail-Trail.

Closing of the 1906 steel suspension Market Street bridge, linking West Virginia and Ohio is a significant impediment to bikers and walkers but also to finishing the 3,700-mile Great American Rail-Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It will cost about $200 million to replace and though the Biden Administration already approved $87.5 million, West Virginia, which owns the bridge, must come up with the rest by September 30, 2027 or lose the federal funding.

Now the task is to try to get extra money from the Surface Transportation Fund, which funds Active Transportation Infrastructure Projects. But this requires support from West Virginia’s Senator Shelley Wellons Moore Capito who sits on the Surface Transportation committee and she works closely with House Transportation Chair Representative Sam Graves (R-MO), who has vowed to cut all federal funding for walking and biking paths.

At a reception in Steubenville for Rails to Trails Conservancy at historic Fort Steuben next to the Market Street Bridge, the mayors of Weirton WV and Steubenville OH expressed support for rebuilding the bridge.

“This bridge is vital to revitalization and community,” said Ralph Petrella Mayor City of Steubenville, OH. “People want to go outside. They don’t want malls, they want nature. This is an opportunity for national entity to help give those experiences.”

“We see the importance of the trail – exercise, meeting people (socialization) – important to Weirton,” said Dean Harris Mayor City of Weirton, WV. “Bridge needs to have pathway for walkers, bikers across Ohio River (great Divide). The economic development of our area depends on this bridge. We need to get the link completed and join our two cities – for the economic prosperity of area.”

Eric Oberg, Rail to Trails Conservancy’s Senior Director of Programs, Dean Harris Mayor City of Weirton, WV., Ralph Petrella Mayor City of Steubenville, OH are united in calling for the rebuilding of the Market Street Bridge. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“We need to work with you to achieve this vision of a safe, accessible way to help people walk or bike across country. We want to be partner, to tell the story of a beautiful part of the country,” said Eric Oberg, Rail to Trails Conservancy’s Senior Director of Programs. “People want to see, experience, visit places like this, the Industrial Heartland.”

He took strong exception to the notion it could take 20 years to rebuild the bridge.

“Our message: speed up, prioritize. Just because historically took 20 years doesn’t mean it has to now. Communities fall into the trap that it costs too much money and takes obscene amount of time.” (You only have to look at the pace of data center construction, which blights, rather than benefits local communities.)

Oberg pointed to how fast the Interstate 35W Bridge in Minneapolis was rebuilt after it collapsed, the speed in rebuilding the Key Bridge in Baltimore (at a cost of $5 billion) and how the I-95 interstate in Philadelphia was reopened in 12 days and fully repaired in less than a year.

“The narrative that it takes 20 years shouldn’t be acceptable. We shouldn’t allow public leadership and agencies to take 20 years to develop critical infrastructure.”

These bike trails are an investment in infrastructure that benefits locals as much as visitors (think of overtourism, and how this spreads visitors and economic development around to the villages, towns they would never know to visit or be inspired to visit and not in the far future but today.

The trail brought us to Steubenville, which we learn, is the birth place of Dean Martin, who is featured in an important attraction, Historic Fort Steuben, and was the birthplace of Edwin M. Stanton, Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War and a strong abolitionist who backed Emancipation; Lincoln’s telegrapher, David Homer Bates; and Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first Black man to play in Major League Baseball, breaking the sport’s color barrier 63 years before Jackie Robinson.

Steubenville hosts Free Fridays events every month and an important Nutcracker Village Christmas festival (Nov.24-Jan. 8), displaying 230 life-sized carved Nutcrackers as the centerpiece of a free Christmas-market that now draws 40,000-50,000 people (www.SteubenvilleNutcrackerVillage.com).

For more information on the Great American Rail-Trail, visit: https://www.railstotrails.org/site/greatamericanrailtrail/

Next: ‘One Mile at a Time.’ New Trails Are Links in Building the 3,700-Mile Great American Rail-Trail

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Biking Tours, Outdoors Adventures, See America

Imagine Biking 3,700 Miles Across the USA on The Great American Rail-Trail

October 12, 2026 krubin723

*A vision for a 3,700 mile-long Great American Rail-Trail linking Washington DC to Washington State is becoming reality (map: Rails to Trails Conservancy)*

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

Imagine being able to bike 3,700 miles across the United States, from Washington DC to Washington State, on a network of connected, protected trails, the way people hike the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail and the Appalachian Trail. This is the vision for the Great American Rail-Trail, and I didn’t have to imagine, because I was able to bike newly made trail connections bringing the GART to reality.

The trail now consists of more than 150 existing railtrails, canalways, bikeways and multi-use trails – 2100 miles through 12 states and DC – totaling 56% of the 3,700 miles when complete. These include some of America’s most famous and popular rail trails like the C&O Canalway from DC to Cumberland Md., where it connects to the Great Allegheny Passage (the GAP) railtrail to Pittsburgh, PA, which together form the longest (and most well used) completed stage, 350 miles long.

Biking the popular Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail, 150 miles from Cumberland, Md. To Pittsburgh, PA, one of the key sections of the 3,700-mile long Great American Rail-Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It would be the largest, most ambitious public transport endeavor since the Interstate Highway and the Intercontinental Railroad, and longer than the longest Interstate Highway, Interstate 90 (I-90), 3,020 miles from Seattle, Washington, to Boston, Massachusetts, and longer than the Intercontinental Railroad project, 1,911 miles.

But unlike the Interstate Highway or the Transcontinental Railroad, the Great American Rail Trail is an enterprise of the local people who want to transform abandoned byways into leisure trails and greenways that can be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike, contributing to health and wellness (when being healthy is also key to financial health, productivity and prosperity), quality of life and economic vitality, instead of federal government exerting its eminent domain power or corporations blighting the environment in the name of “commerce,” reclaiming commercial and industrial land for public use. And it is about transport – accessibility, mobility for those who prefer to travel safely by foot or on two wheels.

“The Great American Rail-Trail is the most ambitious [public lands project] to connect East and West Coasts,” said Rails to Trails Conservancy’s Kevin Belle, Project Director, Great American Rail-Trail. The Great American Rail-Trail brings the promise of a new American experience – comparable to Route 66. 50 million people live within 50 miles of the route.

GART was the dream 40 years ago of Rails to Trails Conservancy co-founder David Burwell, who had the vision of converting disused rail corridors into a continuous, cross-country trail network. “He believed trails connect the country,“ said Eric Oberg, R2T’s Senior Director of Programs. “Every trail head feels like that – a cross section of the place we live. Trails are where community happens now – the new Main Street.”

Rails to Trails Conservancy, which is stewarding the Great American Rail-Trail project and leading a coalition of more than 150 partners, announced it six years ago, when half of the 3,700 miles were in place. It took two years to devise the route. (See a map, list).

The task now is to fill some 80 gaps – 1,600 miles – which is what brings R2T project managers and developers around the country, working with local groups.

The states and agencies and organizations for the more than 150 trails that form the backbone were eager to become a part of the Great American Rail-Trail, fully appreciating the enormous benefits that railtrails, canalways, bikeways and greenways bring to cities, towns and rural villages, and what being identified with a national network would mean. Eric Oberg, R2T’s Senior Director of Programs, explained.

An economic impact study projects GART investments could generate more than $229.4 million in visitor spending, 2,500 new jobs and $104 million in labor income, and $22.8 million in new tax revenue.

The GAP, for example, cost about $1 billion to build but brings 1 million users (they know because they have sensors under the trail that count), who spend $120 million a year,. In addition to the benefits to locals – health and wellness, outdoor recreation, increased mobility and safety away from dangerous road traffic, higher property values – the people who are drawn from around the country and the world spend money on hotels, restaurants, gear – $30 million worth in Pittsburgh alone; some even find a new place to set up a business and raise a family.

You would have a network of outfitters and bike tour operators at the ready to provide rental bikes, shuttle service, book lodging or direct you to campgrounds or trailside hostels, who can assist you in doing stages – as many as you want linked together, or come back and do new sections. (Many of these services for the existing trails are also easily found on Great American Rail-Trail’s website, and R2T’s TrailLink and mobile app, www.traillink.com, which details 40,000 miles of trails nationwide, and several tour operators like Wilderness Voyageurs and Discovery Bicycle Tours already feature these trails.)

We have been invited by Rails to Trails Conservancy, to bike trails from Pittsburgh to Columbus and see the vision of the GART unfold, what has already been achieved, and the task ahead in filling the gaps.

We meet Kelly Pack, the Trail Nation Accelerator Program Director, who counsels communities in eight states (WA, MT, AZ, MO, AK, IA, VA, TN), which are just starting development of a vision for a trail network. “We hope to provide the initial start of planning process – mapping support, bringing stakeholders together, to understand the importance [and benefits] of trails.” She explains how R2T can organize virtual workshops and create a “learning cohort” with communities that have had success creating trails.

“Every place is different but the challenges and strategies may be similar.”

We start our ride towards the end of the famous and popular Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail, to see a success story: a gap 8.2 miles long from Homestead along the Monongahela River, crossing near the Hot Metal Bridge, into Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh, where the GAP ends. It took 20 years and $80 million (and a change of mayors) to finally complete the gap in 2013.

Volunteers help maintain it, forging community and pride. The trail contributes to public health, wellness and quality of life, and property values increase in communities along the trail, especially by repurposing aging, decaying abandoned rail lines, bridges and trestles and waterfront.

The historic site of the 1892 Homestead Steel Strike along the Monongahela River in Homestead(near Pittsburgh), where the massive Carnegie Steel Works once stood and on On July 6, 1892, striking steelworkers battled 300 armed private guards from the Pinkerton National Detective Agency who arrived on river barges to break a lockout orchestrated by plant manager Henry Clay Frick, one of the interesting places along the Great Allegheny Passage. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Along the trail, you see purposely left remnants of steel plants as a tribute and continuity of heritage and history and a source of interest. We come to the pump plant where steel workers attempting to unionize were rebuffed by Pinkertons summoned by the governor when they attempted to strike for better wages and conditions.

The trail passes by the NFL Steelers training center. “When they built the stadium, Mayor Tom Murphy, asked Steelers owner Art Rooney to move the stadium back so the trail could come through, reclaiming what was taken from the public by and for industry,” said Bryan Perry, Executive Director of the Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy.

*The repurposed bridge that connects Homestead to the end of the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) in Pittsburgh on the Great American Rail-Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We cross a bridge that used to be used to carry buckets of molten steel over the river, now repurposed to carry cars, bikes and walkers. Those steel plants and coal depots are gone now, instead, from the repurposed bridge you can see tech company buildings on one side, and hotels, housing, retail stores and a marina lining the other side, revitalizing the economy and the environment.

*Showing off the repurposed bridge that connects Homestead to the end of the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) in Pittsburgh on the Great American Rail-Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Indeed, Pittsburgh has been transformed from a carbon-choked polluted city to this glorious, wonderfully liveable, sustainable city. Not coincidentally, it is called “the City of Trails,” where six national and regional trails originate and three rivers converge, their riverfronts reclaimed for public space (GAP, Three Rivers Heritage Trail, Erie to Pittsburgh Trail, Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg Main Line Canal Greenway, Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, and Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition (IHTC) Network). and Great American Rail-Trail.

*Pittsburgh is a “City of Trails”. At Point State Park, the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) connects with the Three Rivers Heritage Trail© Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

And so we come to where the Great Allegheny Passage ends at Pittsburgh’s Point State Park where we encounter the first significant gap, a 9.8 mile section along a highly trafficked West Carson street, before reaching the next trail on the Great American Rail-Trail route, the Montour, which the Pittsburgh coalition has been working for two decades to connect.

It is not just for the benefit of long-haul, out-of-town users. “Solving the problem of West Carson would make Pittsburgh safer, better for pedestrians, bikers – cars, trucks pass at high speed, there is no dedicated space for bikes,” said Scott Bricker, co-founder and Executive Director of Bike Pittsburgh (BikePGH), a bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organization. He noted that one-third of Pittsburgh residents do not drive.

West Carson in Pittsburgh poses a significant challenge to connecting the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail to the Montour Trail on the Great American Rail-Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“The trail system is only as strong as its links. Missing links deprive communities of the benefit of trail – economically, socially, quality of life and health,” said Kelsey Ripper, Executive Director Friends of the Riverfront.

“The key to the project is every single foot in every connection. There are 150 trails today – every foot took hard effort of all the people. Every one worth it,” said Belle, who has spent the past 10 years helping develop those links and connections.

Explore Route Assessment Report

View Economic Impact Report

Learn more about the preferred route, (www.railstotrails.org/site/greatamericanrailtrail/content/route)

States on Route

Route Through Washington, D.C.

Route Through Maryland

Route Through Pennsylvania