CUMBERLAND — No one can pinpoint when the decision was made to convert abandoned railroad beds in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern Maryland into hiking and biking trails.
But when the C&O (Chesapeake & Ohio) Canal National Historical Park in Cumberland acquired the old C&O Canal Towpath in the early 1970s, a new concept was born. Once used by mules to tow barges from Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, the towpath became a trail for walkers, runners and cyclists.
“At that point, the rail lines were being abandoned in Pennsylvania and people said, ‘Wow, what a great opportunity; we could someday possibly connect the towpath all the way to Pittsburgh,’ ” said Linda McKenna Boxx, a founding member of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, renamed the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Conservancy in 2021.
In 1978, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy became involved as the rails were removed, and construction of a recreational trail began in Ohiopyle State Park in a rather inadvertent way — when the park’s former manager, Larry Adams, used a leftover supply of crushed limestone on a 1-mile stretch of the newly acquired rail bed.
“It was a quiet development,” said Bryan Perry, executive director of the Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy. “Yes, there was a notion of building a trail in Ohiopyle as part of the master plan there, but he just sort of did it quietly with just some extra materials. And then he did it again the next year and added another mile or so.”
The following year, a third mile of surplus material was added and the path began to draw attention among local runners and cyclists.
After receiving positive public feedback, approval was given to complete 26.7 miles of trail inside the park in Ohiopyle in Pennsylvania — east to Confluence, and then west to Connellsville.
“That’s the oldest and maybe the most beloved section of what became in 2001 the Great Allegheny Passage,” Perry said.
‘World-class trail’
Over the next dozen years, small towns along the abandoned rail line began constructing their own trails alongside their communities.
“These were very much local trails used by local folks for jogging or biking or running or getting to the river, or taking a baby stroller on,” Perry said. “But Boxx cast this vision for connecting these disparate segments that were used locally, into a lengthy world-class trail.”
In 2013, the 150-mile trail was completed from Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh east to Canal Place in Cumberland. Its eastern terminus abutted the towpath, offering an additional 185 miles of trail to Washington, D.C.
“You now had this Pittsburgh to D.C. non-motorized path, just something unique to the U.S., and certainly on the East Coast,” Perry said. “What this path did, is it provided a non-motorized, largely level, largely flat way for cyclists to make long distance happen.
“And it opened up that kind of travel to younger families and older folks, and to folks who might not have a specialized road bike, but just a standard dime-store bike.”
From rails to trails
Although the trail winds its way through some commercial properties and along Pittsburgh’s busy parkway, about 90% of the GAP lies on former rail beds.
“If it weren’t for the railroads, we wouldn’t have a trail, because there’s no way we could have ever acquired and constructed all of the structures that you’re going to see when you’re riding,” Boxx said.
“It’s mainly two railroad systems. The Western Maryland (Railway) went from Cumberland to Connellsville, and then the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie (Railroad) went from Connellsville to Station Square (in Pittsburgh),” she said. “We couldn’t use the rail line all the way to the P&LE station because it was still active, so we had to jump around and build bridges, and go through industrial parks and so forth. But it’s actually pretty nice. It worked out much better than anybody expected it to, because it was so difficult.”
The trail alliance conducted landowner negotiations and easement agreements with 20 different entities in the last mile of the trail in downtown Pittsburgh.
The GAP’s western terminus in Point State Park lies at just 718 feet above sea level. The trail’s elevation rises to its zenith of 2,392 feet at the eastern continental divide, 123 miles up the trail from the fountain in downtown Pittsburgh.
The high point is very near the massive Big Savage Tunnel, built in 1911. It is one of four tunnels on the trail, which were all built in the early 1900s.
“The Big Savage Tunnel is what really brought us all together,” Boxx said.
‘Big Savage Tunnel’
The trail alliance, Somerset County, and the state of Maryland all needed the 3,294-foot tunnel to be accessible.
“We all wanted to connect to Maryland, so it became all of our problems to get through Big Savage Tunnel, not just Somerset County’s.”
After a $12 million restoration, the tunnel was opened for safe passage, achieving the vital connection to Cumberland. Those exiting the tunnel’s eastern portal are greeted by a grand vista of the Allegheny Mountains before descending on a 1.75% grade for 15 miles into Cumberland.
Boxx considers the GAP to be one of her greatest achievements.
“We did a nice calculation – acquiring the land and constructing the trail was about $80 million,” she said. “The economic impact studies show that $120 million of tourism money from Cumberland to Pittsburgh every year, so we’re getting our investment back every year.”
In 2006, the GAP was named first to the National Rail-Trail Hall of Fame by the Rails to Trails Conservancy in Washington, D.C.