The 100-foot-wide Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park, also known as the W&OD Trail, features a 45-mile asphalt trail for walking, running, skating, bicycling, and other activities, as well as a 33-mile parallel gravel bridle path for horseback riding and biking. The trail traverses the Piedmont between the Potomac River and the Blue Ridge Mountains, creating a recreation corridor from the Virginia suburb of Arlington to the farming areas of western Loudoun County. It takes its name from the railroad whose trains ran along this right-of-way from 1859 until 1968, a line that was never very successful and whose demise was hastened by an improved road system and an increased number of motor vehicles.
