The W&OD Trail is a 100-foot-wide park in Virginia and one of the state's longest parks, with 45 miles of paved trail for walking, running, cycling, skating, and more, built on the roadbed of the former Washington and Old Dominion Railroad. The multi-use trail runs through the urban heartland and countryside of Northern Virginia, with endpoints at Shirlington in Arlington County and Purcellville in Loudoun County. Its first section opened in Falls Church in 1974, dedicated by then mayor Harold Muil ler, and the trail was completed in 1978. Along the paved trail are an additional 32 miles of adjacent gravel equestrian trail for horseback riding over hills and through shallow streams. The railroad route was once known as the Alexandria, Loudoun, and Hampshire Railroad and was considered vital after its inception in 1847 because it aimed to carry commerce inland from the Alexandria seaport to Loudoun County, though that line of commerce never truly developed. Today the trail follows the course of those tracks through what are now Arlington, Falls Church, Vienna, Reston, Herndon, Sterling, Leesburg, and Purcellville, and it offers unusual vantage points where it crosses the Capital Beltway, crosses Route 66 in two places, crosses Route 7 near Leesburg, and passes a Luckstone Quarry between Leesburg and Purcellville.
