Most native Washingtonians are no strangers to the incredible nature that’s right outside of the D.C. Area – you can even find incredible waterfalls and cliffs roughly 30 minutes from the capital.
But now, thanks to the development of the Great American Rail Trail, a project is being developed by the Rails to Trails Conservancy (RTC), there is soon going to be an easily accessible trail that will start right here in Washington, D.C. and take you all the way to Washington State!
What is the Great American Rail Trail?
As stated above, the ‘Great American Rail Trail’ (GART) is meant to be the country’s first publicly accessible bike-friendly cross-country trail – following its proposed ‘preferred’ route, the trail will start in Washington, D.C., and end over 3,700 away in Washington State.
The concept of this trail is not a recent development, it actually can be traced back decades to the late 80s and early 90’s when the RTC began to monitor the development of ‘rail trails’ to identify a cross-country route that could ultimately be connected to create the Great American Rail Trail.
However, to optimize the development process and facilitate minimal need for investment, the RTC planned to not scale the project until they were able to identify a route that was already considered at minimum 50% complete – a milestone that was hit in 2017.
Since then, to connect the existing ‘rail trails’ to bridge the cross-country route the RTC has been working with state and local partners to develop the Great American Rail Trail along their preferred route.
What is a ‘rail trail’?
Exactly as it sounds, a rail trail leverages the gentle slope and open pathways of former railroad routes to create a relatively flat and easy-to-bike trail that can extend great distances.
With these ‘rail trails’ becoming more common, the plan for the GART Trail is to simply connect a series of these existing trails to create one continuous cross-country route.
Naturally, this is not only to minimize the need for investment, as 50% of the route has already been created, but it will also reduce the environmental impact of the development of the GART as well – limiting the construction of new pathways only to where it is essential.
When is the Great American Rail Trail going to be completed?
Unfortunately, as of 2024, the trail is only around 55% complete, but you can check the GART’s most recent progress report and see that a significant portion of that incomplete percentage is actually from some of the states of Wyoming (only 3.4% complete) and Montana (only 25.3% complete).
You can see the full table of its 2024 completion progress here:
So while it doesn’t seem like the full Great American Rail Trail will be complete any time soon, it does seem like you can navigate some of these incredible existing trails to plan some incredible journeys!