CWL 2008 #9 Fort Belvoir Military Rail Trail

I couldn't find out much about the history of this railroad, (apparently the Fort Belvoir Eagle wrote one about it back in the 1990's, but I've been unable to locate a copy of that). What I do know is this.

In 1912, the U.S. War Department acquired 1,500 acres on what had been the Belvoir Plantation to establish a rifle range and summer camp for engineer troops stationed at Washington Barracks.

With America's entrance into World War I, it became evident that a large camp was needed for training purposes. Camp Belvoir was recommended, and on Dec. 15, 1917, the Secretary of War approved the project for 16,000 troops, authorization to acquire land, and $3.3 million for construction. The cantonment was named Camp A.A. Humphreys in honor of the Civil War commander and former Chief of Engineers, Andrew A. Humphreys. Through purchases or condemnation, the Army acquired additional acreage during 1917 and 1918, expanding the original 1,500 acres to approximately 5,500 acres. In June of 1918, a second authorization was given to increase the cantonment capacity to 30,000, and this second wave of construction by the Quartermaster was completed by Oct. 31, 1918.

According to this website, the railroad was built in 1918 (pictured below), and it shows up on maps by 1925.

At some point in time between then and now, the line went inactive (sorry I don't have more info Update: the last train ran in 1993) and in places, like Telegraph Road, the tracks have been removed. I do know that the Newington Station was removed in 1971..

The line is at least partially owned by the military. The 2007 Railroad Realignment Feasibility Study, which studied the possibility of building new railroad connections to route dangerous freight around the city of DC, makes it unclear; but a map (Figure 2.1) in the Characteristics A section makes it appear that CSX owns the portion north of Route 1 - Richmond Highway. This would be too bad because any trail would need DOD approval. Getting DOD approval and CSX approval...yikes.

The RRF Study mentioned above considered using the Fort Belvoir line as part of its northern alignment, using the Indian Head Branch in Maryland. It was not enthusiastic and didn't make the list of viable options.

The most northerly crossing location considered was at Fort Belvoir, which has a military rail spur from the RF&P Line through the military base. Though physically feasible, this alignment would traverse a growing military installation. This corridor is also near and visible from Mount Vernon.

Frankly, making it into a trail is probably not even the best use. With Fort Belvoir set to expand as part of the latest BRAC process. It would be wiser to extend Metro from Franconia-Springfield and down to Newington and then up to the gates of the base (if not on to it). I know they may not want to bring a train on base, but I have to think that some amount of security (berms for example) could satisfy their needs. if they did so, of course a trail should go with it.

But assuming that won't happen and the trail could be built by itself, it would be pretty easy since most of the ROW exists. The 2.5 mile long trail (map) could start from just west of Cinderbed Road and then cross that road on the bridge. It would follow the ROW to the east side of the intersection of the Fairfax County Parkway and Telegraph Road. It could cross at grade - as the Parkway sidepath does now or be grade separated. The trail would parallel the Parkway, but at a distance from it - unlike the sidepath. This would help with oncoming headlights.

The trail would enter the base and the Parkway would turn away. The trail would cross Beulah Street on an extant bridge, stay east of Meade Road, and then cross Route 1 on another extant bridge.

At Route 1, which is also US Bicycle Route 1, it would connect to the street level on both sides. This could be a reasonable ending point for the trail.

The ROW continues onto the base along the west side of Gunston street. Perhaps the military would want to use it for its employees (set up a guard post on the south side of Route 1, connect it to Jackson Loop, or build it all the way to the end of Gunston - it depends on the traffic counts, which I am not privy to), but access to this portion for non-authorized personnel would be difficult and unnecessary - unless it connected to the Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge.

The trail could be enhanced on both ends by adding a stream trail along Accotink Creek. On the north the trail could connect to the Franconia-Springfield Metro and beyond; and on the south to the Wildlife Refuge.

This isn't so crazy. Part of the ROW is outside the base. Part of it is in the Parkway corridor. The last part runs along the boundary between the base and the town of Accotink.

It seems the Army might even be making plans for a hiker/biker trail - though this was all I could find.

KCI designed the rehabilitation for six bridges at the US Army Garrison at Fort Belvoir and performed an in depth inspection of the structures, some which involved maintenance of traffic...Plans also included conversion of an abandoned railroad bridge to accommodate a hiker/biker trail.

I think encouraging clean, human powered commuting is something the US military should get behind.