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Length: 1,326 miles (est.)
Links: Flight 93 Ntl. Memorial (Pennsylvania),
Ntl. 9/11 Pentagon Memorial (Washington, D.C.),
Ntl. September 11 Memorial & Museum (Ground
Zero) (New York)
PHOTO: (Left)
Rendering of the
Flight 93 National
Memorial. (Above)
Debby Borza (left)
leads the author
and her son
along a footpath
near the site in
Somerset County,
Pennsylvania, where
40 people lost
their lives during
the September
11, 2001, attacks.
Borza’s 20-year
old daughter Deora
Bodley was one of
the passengers, on
her way to begin
her junior year in
college.
On a bright June afternoon, Debby Borza leads a
small group of visitors along a footpath overlooking
hundreds of acres of green fields in Somerset County,
Pennsylvania. She reflects on the once-scarred land
of this abandoned strip mine, pointing out the new-
est changes to the landscape: 40 groves of 40 young
maples. The groves were planted in memory of the 40
flight passengers and crew members who lost their
lives here on the morning of September 11, 2001.
One of those people was Borza’s 20-year-old daugh-
ter Deora Bodley, a student on her way to begin her
junior year in college. The Pennsylvania strip mine—one
of three sites marking the worst terrorist attack in U.S.
history—is where Borza and the other family members
of the 40 people on Flight 93 came to mourn their loved
ones. It’s a place she now returns to several times a
year to focus her thoughts and energies on renewal.
This place of grief and hope so personal to Borza and
the other Flight 93 family members has also become
part of America’s collective national memory. It’s a site
that is preserved now by the National Park Service as
the Flight 93 National Memorial.
As Borza turns to head back to the visitors’ center, she
spots a couple of weary-looking cyclists crossing the
parking lot. The two women are coming from the main
park entrance—which means they must have ridden
Route 30, a dangerous stretch of road for bikes. She in-
troduces herself and asks if they need help or directions.
“Is there trail access to the memorial now?” one of the
cyclists asks. “We rode in off the GAP to remember Flight
93, but we weren’t sure if the new trail was open yet.”
Connections Across 1,300 Miles
The brand-new trail connection that Borza pointed out
to the riders that day is far more than a day-trip spur off
the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP). It’s a critical link in
a 1,300-mile triangle of trails connecting the Flight 93
memorial to the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C.,
and New York City’s Ground Zero.
The September 11th National Memorial Trail (NMT) is
a multi-use circuit born of many different kinds of con-
nections—among trail advocates, communities, existing
trails and even moments in history. Its first leg runs
northwest from the Pentagon Memorial, following the
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park to
the GAP at Cumberland, Maryland. It links to the Flight
93 memorial via a newly acquired rail right-of-way from
Garrett, Pennsylvania. The second leg extends east
from the Flight 93 memorial to New York City’s National
September 11 Memorial, piggybacking along many
rail-trails and community trails in Pennsylvania and New
Jersey. The third leg, from New York City to the Penta-
gon Memorial, follows the East Coast Greenway south
through five states.
The founders of the NMT, a corps of trails advocates
who conceived the idea just days after 9/11, describe
the project as a fusion of three distinct themes. First, it
is a secular pilgrimage experience, a journey of remem-
brance of the fallen of 9/11 and of tribute to its first
responders. Whether it’s traveled by foot, bike, motor-
cycle or car, the route offers opportunities to reflect
on the events that changed the nation’s course and
consciousness. Second, the trail is a tour of landmarks
that focuses on themes of American nation-building
and resilience. It’s this thematic emphasis that shapes
the new east-west trail alignment between Pennsylva-
nia and New Jersey.
Finally, the September 11th National Memorial Trail
marks a bold new experiment in trail connectivity. The
wiggly lines of the route map bear witness to the hun-
OPPOSITE PAGE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, CC BY 2.0. THIS PAGE: CHARLIE ROSSI
THE 9/11 TRAIL
IS A MULTI-
USE CIRCUIT
BORN OF MANY
DIFFERENT KINDS
OF CONNECTIONS
AMONG TRAIL
ADVOCATES,
COMMUNITIES,
EXISTING TRAILS
AND MOMENTS IN
HISTORY.
FALL 2016 RAILS TO TRAILS 15
T R A I L O F T R I B U T E S