rails
to
trails
winter.16
24
community connections
forces. After the Battle of Gettysburg
in July 1863, thousands of wounded
soldiers used the railway to evacuate
to hospitals. President Lincoln trav-
eled on the line in November 1863
to deliver his now-famous Gettysburg
Address. Following Lincoln’s assassina-
tion in April 1865, just days after the
end of the war, the Northern Central
Railway transported his remains from
Baltimore to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
a section of the funeral train procession
from Washington, D.C., to Springfield,
Illinois.
e railroad changed ownership sev-
eral times but remained operational until
1972, when Hurricane Agnes severely
damaged miles of track. By 1984, the
Maryland Department of Natural
Resources had converted the Maryland
portion into the Torrey C. Brown Rail
Trail, also known as the Northern Central
Railroad Trail. Pennsylvania opened the
first portion of the connecting Heritage
Rail Trail in 1999, and additional por-
tions along the northern end have been
opening in stages since 2007. e last 2
miles of trail needed to connect the main
trail and its northern extension are on
schedule to be completed in 2016.
“ e Torrey C. Brown trail now
attracts nearly a million user visits annu-
ally, [and] based upon the most recent
study, the Heritage Rail Trail attracts
nearly 300,000 annual user visits,” says
Carl Knoch, former trail development
manager for RTC’s Northeast Regional
Office and chairman of the York County
Rail Trail Authority (
yorkcountytrails.
org
) board of directors. “ e trail has
been an economic boon to the small
towns along the route, with new business-
es forming to serve trail users and existing
businesses seeing increased traffic.”
e Heritage Rail Trail also celebrates
its history and draws tourism with
Steam Into History, 10-mile excursion
train rides alongside the trail powered by
a replica 1860s steam locomotive.
Together, the two trails compose a
central portion of the developing Grand
History Trail, which will link more 250
miles of trail and explore more than
250 years of American history between
Washington, D.C., and Gettysburg.
—Danielle Taylor
Midwest Masterpiece
Minneapolis clearly is doing something
right. A 2014 study by the U.S. Census
Bureau revealed that the city boasted a
bicycle commuter rate nearly seven times
the national average.
Much of this success can be attribut-
ed to the Midtown Greenway, a 5.5-mile
rail-trail running east to west through
south Minneapolis. Each day, thousands
of commuters hit the trail, helping the
city reduce fuel emissions and promote
a culture of physical activity. Because
the trail has very few intersections
with other thoroughfares, it offers the
fastest option for traveling crosstown.
Additionally, the trail has spurred devel-
opment along its route, generating new
income streams for Minneapolis and its
residents.
Recognizing the positive impact this
trail has had on its community and seeing
it as a noteworthy example for other cit-
ies to follow, RTC chose to highlight the
Midtown Greenway in 2015 by induct-
ing it into the Rail-Trail Hall of Fame.
“It is one of the most popular bike
commuter routes in the city, and one of
the busiest bikeways in the state,” says
Soren Jensen, executive director of the
Midtown Greenway Coalition. “More
than 5,000 people bike on it each day
during the summer months, and we esti-
mate more than 1 million bike trips are
taken on it each year.”
A 1912 directive from the
Minneapolis City Council mandated
that all rail lines running through the
city had to be laid below street level to
reduce collisions with other vehicles and
pedestrians, so the Milwaukee Railroad
dug a trench to accommodate its rail
line. Eighty years later, the below-grade,
uninterrupted corridor caught the eye of
a few local bike advocates. e Midtown
2015 RAIL-TRAIL HALL OF FAME
Symbolic Legacy
It’s only fitting that Pennsylvania’s
Heritage Rail Trail County Park and
Maryland’s Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail
unite at the Mason-Dixon Line, per-
fectly representing the history of a rail
corridor steeped in the conflicts of the
Civil War, and joining in plans for an
exciting future. It’s equally fitting that in
2015, the 150th anniversary of the Civil
War’s conclusion and the assassination of
President Abraham Lincoln, they share
the honor of being placed in the Rails-
to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) Rail-Trail
Hall of Fame.
“ ese are outstanding examples of
iconic rail-trails that had yet to be recog-
nized,” says Liz orstensen, RTC’s vice
president of trail development. “ ey
are both really well utilized and seen as
important assets in their communities.”
Together, the stewards of these out-
standing trails have perfectly balanced
the job of remembering their history and
providing for their present and future
communities.
e former Northern Central
Railway provides the footprint for the
rail-trails, now spanning nearly 44
miles of crushed stone. In the early
1800s, the railroad carried passengers
and freight between Baltimore and
York, Pennsylvania. Confederate troops
attacked the critical rail line in the sum-
mers of 1863 and 1864, destroying
bridges that soon were rebuilt by Union
The Heritage Rail Trail celebrates its
railroad past with Steam Into History.
JOHN GENSOR
