The Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail follows one of the last remnants of the streetcar line that ran from the Treasury Building in downtown Washington, D.C. to Laurel, and riders can again travel from Hyattsville to Branchville on the same route once used daily by the Number 82 streetcar carrying commuters and shoppers downtown. The region has a long history of transportation innovation: U.S. Route 1 was established before 1794 as a post road for carrying mail, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built the Washington Branch into D.C. in 1835, and the Maryland and Washington Railway began streetcar service from Florida and New York Avenue NE to Mount Ranier in 1897. Mergers in 1898 created the City and Suburban Railway, which extended service to Riverdale by 1899 and Berwyn by 1900. A financially weak Berwyn and Laurel Electric Railroad built the last portion into Laurel and provided shuttle car service to Berwyn. After additional mergers, the first through car service from Washington to Laurel began in 1902 via Mount Ranier, Brentwood, North Brentwood, Hyattsville, Riverdale Park, College Park, Berwyn, Branchville, and Beltsville. Operations later continued under the names Washington Railway and Electric Company, Capital Transit Company, and D.C. Transit System. Streetcars ran on the line from Washington to Branchville until 1958, and streetcar service ended regionwide by 1962. The former line then continued as a utility right-of-way until the first major steps to convert the alignment into a trail began in the late 1990s in College Park, with final portions between Charles Armentrout Drive and Farragut Street in Hyattsville and Branchville Road and Greenbelt Road in College Park scheduled for completion before 2020.
