Installation of trail bridge in July 2018
Phase 2 of the Washington Boulevard Trail is complete, and Arlington plans to cut the ribbon on it on November 30th at 1pm at Towers Park. It didn't take long for the work to get done, having started back in February, but it sure took a long to get it started.
Phase 1, a short section from the Arlington Boulevard Trail to a dead end just past Walter Reed Drive, was completed in 2010 and we've been waiting 8 years for Phase 2 to extend it. The project got hung up in some local disputes over trees leading to multiple redesigns and it wasn't until last year that everything was approved.
The project has undergone substantial redesign to minimize the removal of existing trees. The project includes an extensive planting plan that includes 263 new trees. The new trees will replace the canopy over time, and with invasive plant management a native ecosystem can be established that provides an enhanced environment for wildlife, and an aesthetic landscape that benefits the community’s local urban forest.
But now that both phases are complete, it creates a 10 foot wide N-S bike trail between Arlington Boulevard and Columbia Pike.
Since Washington Boulevard was built on the right of way of the old south Arlington branch of the Washington, Arlington and Falls Church interurban, one could consider this to be an eventual conversion of the right-of-way into a road with trail.
In a way this could be thought of as only one half of the Washington Boulevard Trail. The other half starts at the Mount Vernon Trail near Memorial circle and follows along the south side of Washington Boulevard between it and the Pentagon and the Pentagon Memorial to Columbia Pike. Once the section of Columbia Pike north of Washington Boulevard is rebuilt to allow for the expansion of Arlington Cemetery, the trail will be complete - and so will a second Arlington Loop, but this one around the Cemetery.
Coverage of the ribbon cutting is here.
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