Cyclists Joyce Maley (left) and Dale Shultz of Meyersdale ride their bikes out of the Big Savage Tunnel on opening day, Friday, March 31, 2023. By Todd Berkey tberkey@tribdem.com Big Savage Tunnel Great Allegheny Passage logo CUMBERLAND, Md. – No one can pinpoint when the decision was made to convert abandoned railroad beds in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern Maryland into hiking and biking trails.
But when the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park in Cumberland, Maryland, acquired the old C&O Canal towpath in the early 1970s, a new concept was born.
Once used by mules to tow barges from Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, the towpath became a trail for walkers, runners and cyclists.
“At that point, the rail lines were being abandoned in Pennsylvania, and people said, ‘Wow, what a great opportunity. We could someday possibly connect the towpath all the way to Pittsburgh,’ ” said Linda McKenna Boxx, a founding member of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, renamed the Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy in 2021. Cyclist take in the view from the Whitaker Flyover on Nov.7, 2020. The structure was constructed in 2010 to carry the GAP through a prominent industrial area east of Homestead, and over four sets of live railroad tracks. In this area the GAP follows the path of a former U.S. Steel pipeline which once distributed coke gas to steel mills in the Monongahela River valley. The structure’s long ramp leads to a prime location for rail fans. (Photo by Bryan Perry) In 1978, the Western Pennsylvania […]
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