Access to Healthy Living
Many rail-trails are being incorporated into comprehensive trail systems, whose benefits can improve health while reducing the costs and burdens of health care. A piece of the former San Francisco Belt Railroad forms part of the San Francisco Bay Trail, which wraps 350 miles around San Francisco Bay and is a part of the 2,600-mile Bay Area Trails Collaboration. The railroad once connected waterfront docks, warehouses, and industries. Now it helps connect seven million people in nine counties and dozens of communities. The trail system is part of a statewide strategy to encourage physical activity and combat obesity.
Railroad: Freedom Train / San Francisco Belt Railroad
Location: Marina Green,
San Francisco, California
Date: December 1, 1975
Credit: Mike Pechner, Collection of Mike Pechner.Copyright, 2009, “All Rights Reserved.”
The American Freedom Train curves around the San Francisco Belt Railroad tracks at Marina Green in San Francisco, California, on a hazy winter day in December 1975.
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Trail: San Francisco Bay Trail
Trail length: 350 miles
Date: November 13, 2021
Credit: Barre Fong, courtesy of the photographer
Where the San Francisco Belt Railroad once ran in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, residents now flock to the San Francisco Bay Trail.
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Mental Health
Access to open spaces helps relieve mental distress, and that was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Northeast, many nineteenth- century railroads built to tap the region’s rich deposits of anthracite have now become popular and scenic trails. The Lehigh Gap near Palmerton, Pennsylvania, once hosted three railroads. Norfolk Southern trains still run on the former Central Railroad of New Jersey. Across the river, the former Lehigh Valley Railroad now hosts part of the D&L Trail. Just above it, two miles of the former Lehigh & New England Railroad are now a trail that offers panoramic views of the rugged water gap. With many large cities nearby, users flock to these trails for both physical and mental health. During coronavirus lockdowns, the D&L Trail’s popularity increased three-fold.
Railroad: Lehigh & New England Railroad
Location: Lehigh Gap, Pennsylvania
Date: March 31, 1946
Credit: Donald W. Furler, Center for Railroad Photography & Art, Furler-02-070-02
A Lehigh & New England steam locomotive pulls a train carrying anthracite across the Lehigh River.
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Trail: D&L Trail
Trail length: 142 miles
Date: November 28, 2021
Credit: Oren Helbok, courtesy of the photographer
Jem Helbok, son of the photographer, views the Lehigh Gap from the Winter Trail in November 2021. Both the D&L and the Lehigh & New England rail-trails are visible across the river.
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Caption: San Francisco Bay Trail, (detail), November 13, 2021. Photograph by Barre Fong
