W&OD Trail Cutting Right Through The Heart Of Northern Virginia

One of the great trails that I absolutely love to walk & run on is the W&OD trail or the Washington & Old Dominion trail that cuts thru the heart of Northern VA.  Now that the weather is starting to warm up and we have gotten rid of the snow, the W&OD trail will be quite busy this spring.

There is definitely some rich history with the trail.  I was reading up on the W&OD on great website - Friends of the W&OD Trail where that provide some great information on its history but also includes info on how to contribute to help preserve this trail.

 

History of the Trail
The 100-foot wide Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park (W&OD) is one of the skinniest parks in the commonwealth of Virginia, but also one of the longest — 45 miles in length. The W&OD takes its name from the railroad whose trains ran along the right-of-way from 1859 until 1968. The entrepreneurs who founded the rail line dreamed of bringing coal and other riches from the Appalachians to the Port of Alexandria, but those dreams were never fully realized. Less than a decade after it was built, the railroad was almost destroyed during the Civil War.

After the war, the railroad was slowly rebuilt and then saw a series of changes of ownership and objectives. The heyday of the W&OD came early in the 20th Century, when it provided service three times daily from Alexandria to Falls Church, Leesburg and Purcellville, with stops at such hamlets as Dunn Loring, Hunter Station and Paeonian Springs.(cont)

Here also is a quick video on this trail thru Loudoun County...