Last month, DDOT presented options on the Palisades Trolley Trail that envisions a trail connecting neighborhoods along the Potomac River with Georgetown and with the Capital Crescent Trail. How good those connections will be, and how much the trail will cost, will depend on which options are chosen.

The Palisades Trolley Trail is a proposed path along the long-abandoned trolley bed of the Cabin John Trolley and it has a long history. That trolley once went from the Georgetown Car Barn to Glen Echo and the Cabin John Bridge. After the streetcar ceased operations in 1962 the rail bed sat vacant, but there were initial plans to build a road, the Palisades Parkway, on it. Neighbors started using the ROW to store boats, campers and cars and others used it to dump trash illegally, so the city told Roy O. Chalk, the owner, to do something about it and he built a fence to block local access. Neighbors complained about that too, so the District started making plans to buy it for a trail. By 1976 local planners had penciled in a bike trail on the right-of-way all the way to Glen Echo. A few years later, the District decided they needed the land to build a water main and they planned to build the two projects together. But a 1981 NIMBY operation led to the DC portion of the trail being shelved based on a close neighborhood vote. Despite the setback, District planners continued to include a trail on the ROW in several planning documents over the following 40 years. DC condemned the land in 1982 and bought it in 1983 for $8 million for the water main. The Maryland portion was dropped from planning documents in the recent Montgomery County Bicycle Plan because planners thought it was duplicative of the MacArthur Boulevard bike path, but they still plan a connection from the Capital Crescent Trail to the Brookmont neighborhood.

Map of planned bike routes in 1976

But now, like John Rambo and Emperor Palpatine, the trail is back from the 80's.

WMATA, which got the trestle and other property after requesting guardianship of it from the courts in 1997, recently decided to raze the streetcar trestle over Foundry Branch which has become a hazard and closed the trail underneath it. It is the last of the trestles in DC and the potential loss of it, along with a growing advocacy push for the trail, prompted DDOT to dust off the idea and begin a feasibility study. The Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) denied WMATA a raze permit last fall, which they appealed, and in March the Mayor's Agent issued a continuance on the appeal until October 1st for DDOT to finish their study.

The trail presented at the second public meeting would be an 11' wide trail of various materials running from Georgetown to Galena Place. Most of the trail would have either a crushed gravel surface or a porous pavement, but the short portion east of Foundry Branch would be paved with asphalt. The trail would have the usual amenities but in the area next to the reservoir, where the District owns more land, there would be park-style amenities like benches and gardens. The trail would cost about $4 million not counting bridges ($6-$9 million) a connection to the Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) ($500k) or the Arizona Avenue Bridge project.

At Foundry Branch, they identified four options to get from Foxhall Road to the city. One uses a widened sidewalk along Canal Street and the others use a new bridge over the branch. For those that go over the branch, one ramps down to Canal, another connects to Fowler's Road and a 3rd goes over Fowler's at the old streetcar abutment and then along the land between Canal and the University to connect to Prospect Street. The last option, option 4, is my preferred option (though it's the most expensive and difficult one).

For the Foundry Branch Bridge, there are 4 options. One is to not use it and allow WMATA to raze it. The other three rehabilitate parts and replace others. Costs of the bridge range from $2.1 to $6.3 million. But even the no bridge option costs $1.6-$1.7 million. Other bridges would be needed at Reservoir Road, Clark Place and Maddox Branch, and these would cost ~$2 each.

At Arizona Avenue, new sidewalks, crosswalks and several hundred feet of trail could connect the Palisades Trail at a rebuilt Arizona Avenue Bridge to the CCT for another half million.

There's still a big lift to get this trail built. Agreements are needed with NPS, WMATA, the Army Corps of Engineers and Georgetown University (who reportedly does not want to trail in their front lawn). The trail has to accommodate PEPCO and DC Water. Bridges can't be built on the water main and utilities might need to be moved. There are places where erosion has created steep slopes that will require significant earth work to deal with. The bridge is in bad shape, but parts of it are still good and can hold the weight of the trail. And then of course, there's the money and the raze appeal.

DDOT will work on a Final Design Concept and then in October (after the hold that the Mayor's Agent placed on the raze appeal has expired) they'll issue an Environmental Memorandum Report with a determination of feasibility to be issued in December. I don't know if the plan is to try and push the appeal out until after that or they're willing to take ownership of the trestle at this time or what the plan is, but I hope they have one.

I love the whole thing and think it would be worth it, especially with the CCT connection and the route to Prospect Street, but we'll see.

DDOT is still taking feedback, which can be sent to michael.alvino@dc.gov