Former rail lines became trails as the railroad era gave way to new transportation patterns. Railroads had carried Pennsylvania coal, lumber, and ore to markets such as Philadelphia and New York and brought back finished goods, helping drive the American Industrial Revolution after canals had filled that role in the first half of the nineteenth century. After the Civil War, railroads outcompeted canals and dominated for about a century, until post-World War II long-distance trucking and cheap fuel reduced demand for trains. As railroad companies went bankrupt and abandoned lines, Congress passed the 1980 Staggers Rail Act to simplify selling or transferring those corridors, and in 1983 the National Trails System Act was amended to permit rail-banking, preserving dormant rail corridors for possible future rail use while opening them for hiking, walking, and bicycling. In Pennsylvania, only seven of nearly 100 rail trails are on rail-banked corridors; others use land bought from railroad companies or former rail beds that reverted to private property and are publicly accessed through easements. The 165-mile D&L Trail follows many former rail beds, including 26 miles in Lehigh Gorge State Park, and connects with regional trails in Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton, and Bucks counties, helping restore links between communities and natural places. Converting rail beds into trails, however, often requires removing timber ties and steel rails, rolling and filling ballast, sometimes paving sections, and sustaining long-term maintenance through partnerships among volunteers, land managers, and local municipalities.