Gywnns Falls Trail is a series of hiking and bicycling trails inside Baltimore, Maryland, named for the Gwynns Falls, whose course it follows, and the surrounding Gwynns Falls Leakin Park it passes through. The trail uses unique alignments, sidepaths on existing streets, and on-street sections. The trail consists of one mainline, plus a number of branches, including the Middle Branch Trail, the Hutton Trail, and the Dickeyville Trail. All of these trails carry signage designating them as the Gwynns Falls Trail; their individual names are designated on the mile markers designating their route. The entirety of the Middle Branch Trail, as well as the section of the mainline trail east of the Middle Branch Trail's northern terminus, are part of the East Coast Greenway.
Established in 1998, Gwynns Falls Trail currently operates as a public-private partnership: it is owned and managed by the City of Baltimore, while the Parks & People Foundation coordinates community involvement, volunteer activities and events along the trail.
Route description
Mainline
The Gwynns Falls Trail mainline (abbreviated "GF") runs from Baltimore's Inner Harbor to the Park and Ride facility at the end of Interstate 70 (which had been planned to cut through the park and end at Interstate 95, with a spur route, Interstate 170, branching off to the east and leading to downtown through the residential areas of West Baltimore; however, vehement community and environmental opposition helped put an end to these plans), located at the park boundary at the city/county border. The zero mile of the Gwynns Falls Trail mainline is along a sidepath to the east of Light Street, at the Conway Street intersection. Here, the Gwynns Falls Trail encounters the Jones Falls Trail, which travels north on Light Street on the sidepath to eventually enter the Jones Falls valley. At this point, the Gwynns Falls Trail is a part of the East Coast Greenway, as is the Jones Falls Trail, which continues north.
The Gwynns Falls Trail travels south one mile to the Lee Street intersection, where it splits for its two directions due to the presence of one-way streets. The westbound trail leaves the sidepath and goes east onto Lee Street, then turns south onto Sharp Street to recombine with its opposing direction at the Henrietta Street intersection. The eastbound trail travels east along Henrietta Street, turning south onto Light Street, then immediately east again onto Warren Street. It then turns north on William Street and crosses Key Highway to take the aforementioned sidepath.
Once recombined at the Sharp-Henrietta intersection, the Gwynns Falls Trail passes south through Solo Gibbs Park on a unique path until it meets another alignment of Sharp Street. It continues until the street turns west and becomes Stockholm Street. When the street ends, it encounters the northern terminus of the Middle Branch Trail, which turns south onto Warren Street. The East Coast Greenway also exits from the Gwynns Falls mainline here. The trail's mainline, however, turns north onto Warren Street, utilizing bicycle lanes and immediately crossing the tracks of the Baltimore Terminal Subdivision at-grade. It and the bike lanes turn west onto Ostend Street, passing by M&T Bank Stadium, home stadium of the Baltimore Ravens, and crossing underneath Russell Street. The trail's route then turns south onto Ridgely Street, once again crossing the Baltimore Terminal Subdivision at-grade before encountering a one-way pair of Bayard Street (westbound) and Bush Street (eastbound), which have bicycle lanes. These streets cross the Baltimore Terminal Subddivision one last time. After utilizing these two streets, the Trail crosses Washington Boulevard and enters Carroll Park, where the route turns south to follow the street. As it exits the park, a dedicated sidepath follows the boulevard as it approaches Interstate 95.