The Capital Crescent Trail is a heavily used shared-use path running 7.04 miles from Georgetown to Bethesda along the former Georgetown Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Built on a rail corridor developed between 1892 and 1910, it replaced a line that had become obsolete by the 1980s and saw its last train in June 1985. A feasibility study in 1986 helped launch a long public effort to preserve the route for recreation rather than redevelopment. Constructed in phases during the 1990s, the trail became a prominent example of converting an old transportation corridor into a valued public space, with later extensions and improvements continuing that vision.

Silver Spring, Maryland · USA