The flagship of this revolution is
the Greenville Health System (GHS)
Swamp Rabbit Trail. A nearly 20-mile
greenway that opened in 2009, the GHS
Swamp Rabbit Trail begins just north of
the town of Travelers Rest, winds south
along the Reedy River through down-
town Greenville and then continues far-
ther south to reach Greenville Technical
College. After 15.7 miles, the trail takes
N
estled in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the city of
Greenville, South Carolina, has a history as up-and-down as the
peaks and valleys it borders. In the late 1800s, the city surged to
prominence as the beating heart of the South’s textile industry, with
a parade of red brick mills along the Reedy River spinning cotton
into valuable fabrics. In the 1960s, however, the city fell on hard
times when residents fled to the suburbs and left the urban core to
languish with vacant storefronts and crumbling warehouses. A cou-
ple of decades later, the 1980s saw the city roll up its sleeves to embark on a revitaliza-
tion effort that would ultimately give birth to the Greenville of today: a forward-looking
town bustling with condos, restaurants, cafés and festivals.
By now, this urban revitalization is a familiar story, but that doesn’t mean the revolu-
tions have ceased in Greenville. In fact, this revitalization has made way for a brand-new
kind of change: a revolution focused on healthy recreation and transportation through
walking and biking.
olution
By CamTerwilliger
a few “hops” farther south in a series of
noncontiguous sections. On the other
side of a residential neighborhood, a 1.4-
mile segment follows the Reedy River
to connect to the northern part of Lake
Conestee Nature Park, a 400-acre preserve
of wetlands and forests. After a short on-
street connection, another 1.8-mile seg-
ment runs through the southern portion
of the park. Finally, a 1-mile section can
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