Metropolitan Branch Trail

The Metropolitan Branch Trail, aka the Met Branch Trail, is an 8-mile (13 km) shared-use trail that, when complete, will run from the Silver Spring, Maryland Transit Center to Union Station in the District of Columbia. At Fort Totten a connector trail to the Northwest Branch Trail of the Anacostia Tributaries Trail System at Hyattsville, Maryland will be constructed; and an on-street connection to the National Mall will be constructed from Union Station. When completed, the Metropolitan Branch Trail will serve as part of the East Coast Greenway.

Seven miles of the trail are within Washington, DC and one mile (1.6 km) is in Maryland. The trail gets its name from the Metropolitan Subdivision of the B&O Railroad which the trail parallels. It is considered a rail-trail conversion, because one section of the trail is on former B&O right-of-way. It is anchored by two significant railroad landmarks, Union Station and the old B&O Railroad station in Silver Spring.

History

The trail was first conceived in the early 1990s, but it wasn't until 1998 that federal funding was secured for the construction of the trail. Since then about three miles (5 km) of the trail have been built. A one-mile (1.6 km) section of the trail along McCormick Avenue at Catholic University was the first section built in 1998. Another short, on-road trail section was built along First Street NE from Union Station in 2000. When the New York Avenue Metro Station opened in November 2004, it included about 2,000 feet (610 m) of trail on a raised structure. In 2006, another half mile of trail was built in Takoma, MD. Stairs from the New York Station section to L Street NE, a trail under the tracks along L Street NE and a one block portion along 2nd Street NE were completed in the spring of 2008.

External links

• Metropolitan Branch Trail Website Homepage
• Silver Spring Trails