TROY – A hawk perched atop a flagpole Wednesday afternoon where the Narrows Cascades and Heritage Trail project begins at Burden Pond Preserve, an entrance into a hidden natural area of waterfalls, wildlife and history that waits to be discovered behind the city’s urban hustle.

“This is a hidden gem,” said John Johanson of Post Contemporary, the lead on the project which also includes the city of Troy and the Rensselaer Land Trust.

The five-mile long trail will eventually run from Burden Pond up the Wynants Kill then along Spring Avenue to connect to the Poesten Kill and Prospect Park.

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Construction of the $800,000 first phase is projected to begin in 2018. This will cover two to three miles heading upstream along the Wynants Kill passing by the waterfalls that add cascades and remnants of 19th and 20 centuries industrial operations in the city to the Rensselaer Land Trust’s Staalesen property . The Narrows’ name comes from these features and the tight ravines through which the creek flows on its way to the Hudson River.

After building the first phase, Johanson said plans call for moving on to the second phase to tie into the Poesten Kill and Prospect Park to complete the entire trail. The costs for the second part of the trail project have not yet been calculated.

While many visitors’ and residents’ attention is drawn to downtown, the Narrows is a cooperative effort to get people to discover the natural treasures that are a few yards walk off major thoroughfares. Commuters driving along Campbell Avenue and Mill Street are speeding by environmental resources they would expect to see in a state park not in the Capital Region’s third most populous city, said Kristina Younger, president of the Rensselaer Land Trust.

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Holding up 19th century pictures, Joseph Durkin, a Rensselaer Land Trust board member, pointed out where the Burden Iron Works was situated. He noted that anyone walking along the Narrows trail will be able to see why the cascades along the Wynants Kill helped propel Troy forward into becoming an industrial powerhouse in the 19th century.

The Narrows will be connected to the citywide trail system that the city has been developing. The Narrows trail will be accessible from various neighborhoods in South Troy and the East Side.