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Story and Photos by Karen Votava Atrian Bridge Over the Brandywine River to This Route in Place

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Story and Photos by Karen Votava Atrian Bridge Over the Brandywine River to This Route in Place bike path 3,000 miles long! founding to be the perfect husband Bob as we discussed Canada to Key West! No moment to begin my per- this venture last December, “ way!” Only minutes into sonal pilgrimage. It would relaxing before a fire in our our two-week journey from be a chance to assess what southern Rhode Island home. East Coast Greenway Wilmington, Delaware, to had been accomplished over “Let’s do it a bit at a time. We’re New York City, we paused on a pedes- the past two decades to put not aiming to click off the miles Story and photos by Karen Votava Atrian bridge over the Brandywine River to this route in place. And it – we want a gentle, unhurried admire the historic Bancroft Mill complex, could inspire less adventur- ride, consistent with our sta- and met our first fellow trail users. A pair ous cyclists by showing that tus as seniors!” Our plan was of seniors (like ourselves) were out for a public transportation could to take 12 days to travel from day of cycling on the Northern Delaware enable them to cover a lon- Wilmington, Delaware, to New Greenway, a paved trail winding through ger distance, skipping over York City, folding in three days a series of parks carved from former pri- more challenging terrain. of downtime to see Philadelphia vate estates. Their eyes lit up to learn that We wanted to test how well and two days exploring a spur their hometown bike path was part of the public transportation would trail, the Schuylkill River Trail. East Coast Greenway (ECG), a 3,000-mile work as an adjunct to bicycle Riding the rails to our start- traffic-free trail being established along the travel, especially with heavily ing point, we got our first Eastern Seaboard. loaded bikes. Bike-accessible chance to test the public trans- Some background: In the fall of 1991, commuter rail allowed us to portation–bicycle fit. A mile I was among a group of nine who met in reach our departure point in from our start in Park Slope, New York City to found the East Coast Wilmington without using Brooklyn, we used a street- Greenway Alliance (ECGA). Our goal was our car, starting from our side elevator on Pacific Street to spearhead implementation of this bold small apartment in Park Slope, to take us and our bikes to the vision for a Maine-to-Florida bike path. I Brooklyn. subway platform below. There, had a personal stake in seeing this vision For accommodations we we boarded the #2 subway to realized in that it could expand cycling were not going to rough it with camp- reach Penn Station in Manhattan where possibilities right in our backyard. But I ing and hostels. We’d use low-cost hotels we caught a New Jersey Transit commuter also had a professional interest. As direc- and bed down with friends. And we also train to Trenton. “No one even seemed tor of open space planning for the New wanted to try out airbnb.com, a new B&B to notice us” said Bob. “You would think York City Planning Department, I served service we’d read about that seemed like loaded bike tourists were an everyday sight as chief author of the 1993 Greenway Plan a good way to find friendly accommoda- in the city.” for New York City, a blueprint for 350 miles tions close to biking routes (most franchise After a change of trains in Trenton, from of bicycle trails crisscrossing America’s hotels tend to be on busy highways, away New Jersey Transit to Philadelphia’s Septa largest city (now largely implemented). It from the ECG route.) With the ECG more line, we were on our way to 30th Street was a short leap to envision linking New Station in Philadelphia. There we changed York City’s greenway system to a route that yet again to the Septa train that would take would connect people from New York to us to Wilmington. Elevators existed for all destinations as far north as Maine or south level changes except one on the route from all the way to Florida. Penn Station to Wilmington, and thanks Our vision was to link local trails to to excellent connections, it took only three form a largely off-road pathway, slicing and a half hours! (Sadly, Amtrak does not through cities and towns and stretching yet accommodate bikes on their Northeast from Canada to Key West. It should go Corridor route.) directly through downtowns, linking pop- ulation centers with popular destinations. The Northern Delaware Greenway It would serve users of all abilities, travel- On a day that began with rain but ing by many modes — recreational cyclists, soon brightened, we headed out on our families with kids, walkers, folks in wheel- loaded bikes from the Doubletree Hotel on chairs, on horseback, or on skates. It would King Street and followed it a few blocks CASEY GREENE offer a unique opportunity to discover, at a north along the on-street ECG route to the leisurely pace, a part of America full of his- complete in the Mid-Atlantic region, there Brandywine River. Just after crossing a tory, culture, architecture spanning several would be more miles of trail to experience. bridge we passed our first ECG trail marker, centuries, industrial ruins, and stunning And there was the richness of the built directing us to turn left into Brandywine natural landscapes. environment along this most urbanized Park, one of a number of parks designed by Serving for 15 years as the execu- stretch of the greenway, its detail lost to Frederick Law Olmsted that we would visit tive director of the East Coast Greenway people speeding along I-95. Hidden to them along our route. Here in the Brandywine Alliance, I have long dreamed of cycling is the wealth of history, culture, and ethnic Gorge, begins the nine-mile-long Northern the entire route of the ECG. Now retired, I dining options just off the highway. Delaware Greenway, which would take us found the 20th anniversary of the ECGA’s “3,000 miles is a lot of cycling,” said my close to the Pennsylvania border. The trail followed the river past the Brandywine followed the Governor Printz Boulevard a Zoo. Above towered a forest of stately few miles to the Claymont Septa train sta- trees, and the stone and steel arches of a tion. With an early-evening appointment in series of venerable highway and rail bridges Philadelphia, we chose to skip cycling the soared overhead. Only blocks from down- (currently) largely on-road route into the town Wilmington, the landscape verged on city. This was the only time we had to carry wildness, but it was also studded with the our bikes down and up — through a tunnel remnants of its industrial past, including a — to the northbound track. A short, raised series of mill buildings now converted to platform at the front of the train accom- upscale condos. After crossing a delicate modated wheelchair users (the American’s pedestrian suspension bridge, the route with Disabilities Act legislation aimed at soon moved on to the street. It climbed past serving the disabled has been a boon to a series of handsome early 20th-century cyclists). This platform enabled us to enter homes once belonging to magnates of an the train with our bikes easily, although it earlier era and the Delaware Museum of meant we entered through the engineer’s Art, before dropping down to the river and road can involve hills, but as new sections with white tail tips. We continued along cabin. “Not a problem,” the courteous engi- re-entering the off-road trail. “I thought of trail are added, it will make for an ever the asphalt pathway, a curvy, hilly route neer said as he helped us maneuver our the ECG was flat,” mumbled Bob as we gentler ride. through stands of mature trees, and passed loaded bikes through the handicapped area puffed up one of the few hills of the entire “We could be in northern New several old mansions now part of this state of the passenger compartment. historic Bartram’s Garden, the 1728 home collide with a toddler in a stroller. trip along the trail as it climbed the north- Hampshire,” commented Bob from our park, including Rockford and Bellevue “How nice, another elevator to the of America’s first botanist). Hugging the Passing under the Benjamin Franklin ern bank of the Brandywine. The ECG is perch on a large rock outcropping along Houses. Arriving at Cauffield House at the street!” Bob murmured as we exited at river, this paved trail, virtually all off-road, Parkway Bridge, a feast of architectural actually a remarkably flat route, consisting the rushing water of the creek. We were end of the trail, the woods opened to reveal the University City Septa stop near the is heavily used by a mix of cyclists, skaters, styles stretched before us. Rising on our largely of former rail corridors, riverfront enjoying a picnic lunch, amused by the the Delaware River in the distance below. University of Pennsylvania. There, we walkers, runners, and other more passive right was the massive Beaux-Arts style paths, and canal towpaths. Sections still on cavorting of several strange gray squirrels Coasting down to the river level, we joined students and commuters head- users such as artists with their easels. It Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts. Shortly, ing home from downtown Philadelphia serves commuters, is a recreational venue for on the left along the river, came the historic along a well-marked bike lane, cycling families, and is Philadelphia’s most popular mid-19th-century Fairmount Water Works Nuts & Bolts: Delaware to New York City about two miles to spend the night in route for racing cyclists.
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