American Icon: The Great American Rail-Trail Is on Its Way to Fulfilling a Cross-Country Vision

American Icon: The Great American Rail-Trail Is on Its Way to Fulfilling a Cross-Country Vision

Whitney Washington knew she’d embark on a cross-country bike trip of some kind, eventually. When a friend sent her an article about a burgeoning route called the Great American Rail-Trail®, it gave her something concrete enough to start her journey, she said.

Here was a map of a 3,700-mile path that charted a course for her. She could see what trails were and weren’t complete. And importantly, she could see that the starting point, the C&O Canal Towpath, the first long-distance trail along the route leaving Washington, D.C., offered a protected, bike-friendly start to the endeavor.

It served as a 180-mile runway to help launch her trip in the summer of 2021.

“When I learned about the Great American, and watched and rewatched other riders’ experiences, I knew I wanted to try too,” she said. “It felt right. Now that I’ve experienced that dream, it lets me know no dream is unachievable. Riding the Great American at that time was a wild idea.

It isn’t completed, I was a novice, and there was so much I had to learn while I was out there. Nevertheless, as long as I kept going, that wild idea became my reality.”

RTC Board Members joined Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and others at the U.S. Capitol to reveal the Great American Rail-Trail preferred route. | Photo courtesy RTC

Officially launched in 2019 by Rails to Trails Conservancy and hundreds of partners, the Great American Rail-Trail project turns 5 this year. The concept of a route between Washington, D.C., and Washington State has already helped inspire trail advocates across its 12 states and the nation’s capital to fill in existing gaps. Being part of the project’s overall cross-country vision has kicked many existing development efforts into high gear, said Kevin Belle, RTC’s project manager for the Great American Rail-Trail.

“It has definitely allowed people to think bigger than perhaps they have in the past,” Belle said. “And to make it feel like [certain goals are] more realistic. A lot of people have thought about filling this gap or that gap. But now they can say: ‘We’re part of this bigger vision. There’s momentum.”