Virginia Capital Trail

The Virginia Capital Trail in Richmond follows the Richmond Dock portion of the James River and Kanawha Canal from Great Ship Lock Park to the floodwall at 17th Street, then connects on the other side to the Canal Walk, which continues to 5th Street and the American Civil War Center at the Tredegar Iron Works. It also links to the Slave Trail, which traces the trade of enslaved Africans from Africa to Virginia until 1775 and from Virginia, especially Richmond, to other places in the Americas until 1865. The surrounding water, rail, and road routes show Richmond's role as a dynamic urban hub: the canal was built in the 1820s and improved in the 1850s, the railroad viaduct was constructed in 1900 and rebuilt in the 1950s, the highway bridges overhead date from the 1950s and 1970s, and the floodwall was built in the 1990s. The Virginia Capital Trail connects Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Richmond, spans more than 50 miles and 400 years of history along one of the first inland routes in North America, and in Richmond reaches the Virginia Capitol, designed by Thomas Jefferson in 1785. In 1737, William Byrd II's original town plan showed this area as a strip of land between the creek and river opposite Lots A/B, with the land between the street grid and the James River designated as Town Commons. Near 15th Street on April 4, 1865, President Lincoln landed at a wharf to tour Richmond the day after the Evacuation Fire, then walked with a small party, including his son Tad, across the 17th Street Bridge and into the city, where crowds of former slaves gathered and greeted them enthusiastically; 10 days later he was assassinated in Washington, D.C.

Richmond, Virginia · United States