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PHOTOS:
(Top)
National September
11 Memorial in
New York City;
(bottom) Inaugural
September 11th
National Memorial
Trail Alliance ride,
Liberty State Park,
Sept. 10, 2015
“The response
to the 9/11
trail is
always of an
emotion, not
just a trail.”
East Coast Greenway
Mid-Atlantic
Coordinator
Andy Hamilton
respects local wishes and work.”
Where connections did not exist, the Alliance re-
quested donations of land and rights-of-way. The most
important of those donations, a 130-acre right-of-way
connecting the Flight 93 memorial to the GAP, came
just this year from the railroad company CSX.
Congressman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), who represents
the district that includes Somerset County, advocated
for the NMT in discussions with CSX. “A project of this
magnitude,” Shuster observes, “does not get done with-
out government and nongovernment entities working
together with the common goal of honoring our heroes.”
Fifteen Years After 9/11
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the 2001 at-
tacks. The vision of a completed triangle of memorials
has become a reality, though parts of the trail still await
signage and improvements.
to piggyback along existing trails
rather than merge them.
Morris County, New Jersey, offers
a striking example of this kind of
partnership. County Assistant Trails
Superintendent Russ Nee manages
Patriots’ Path, a section of the Lib-
erty Water Gap Trail that includes
Revolutionary War sites such as
Jockey Hollow.
Nee first heard about the NMT
project through a local colleague.
“He asked if I’d like to get involved. I
said, ‘Are you kidding? Of course!’”
Nee says the trail partnership
works because local trails are showcased, not drowned
out, by the national memorial theme. “One of the most
important things about the trail,” he states, “is that it
SEPTEMBER 11TH
NATIONAL MEMORIAL
TRAIL MILEAGE
Without Spurs
New York City to Pentagon Memorial, D.C.
(East Coast Greenway): 337 miles
Pentagon Memorial to C&O Canal
(in Georgetown): 3 miles
C&O Canal Trail
(D.C. to Cumberland, Md.): 184 miles
Great Allegheny Passage
(Cumberland, Md., to Garrett, Pa.): 36 miles
Great Allegheny Passage to Flight 93 Memorial: 21 miles
Flight 93 Memorial to New Jersey
(Delaware Water Gap): 485 miles
Delaware Water Gap (Liberty Water Gap Trail)
to New York City: 130 miles
TOTAL: 1,196 miles
With Spurs
Garrett, Pa., to Rockwood, Pa.: 8 miles
Rockwood, Pa., to Pittsburgh, Pa.: 104 miles
Pentagon Memorial, D.C., to Mt. Vernon, Va.
(Mt. Vernon Trail): 18 miles
GRAND TOTAL: 1,326 Miles
T R A I L O F T R I B U T E S
FALL 2016 RAILS TO TRAILS
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