Gwynn Falls Trail

Although I’ve been aware of the Gwynns Falls Trail for some time, only recently have I begun explor­ing its con­tours in earnest. Trav­el­ing its 15-mile length is rewarded by a tour through Baltimore’s hid­den nat­ural resources and the cra­dle of the city’s indus­trial origins.

From the trail­head in his­toric Franklin­town, on the city’s west side, the Gwynns Falls Trail courses through 30 neigh­bor­hoods to Cherry Hill Park on the Mid­dle Branch of the Pat­ap­sco. The trail makes a core sam­pling of the city’s his­tory along the way, result­ing in an expe­ri­ence that is as enlight­en­ing as it is invigorating.

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The Gwynns Falls Trail Coun­cil has done an admirable job in cre­at­ing and main­tain­ing a green space that con­nects sev­eral areas of the city, in some respects ful­fill­ing the green space envi­sioned for Bal­ti­more a cen­tury ago by noted land­scape designer Fred­er­ick Law Olmstead.

The course of the trail is clearly marked and well main­tained, with numer­ous infor­ma­tive signs along the route that pro­vide back­ground and con­text for each loca­tion. A his­tor­i­cal marker at the trail­head at the I-70 Park-N-Ride – just inside the Belt­way – explains the suc­cess­ful com­mu­nity and polit­i­cal efforts to stop the inter­state high­way project, which would have torn through Leakin Park and dra­mat­i­cally changed the char­ac­ter of the city.

Other mark­ers illu­mi­nate the fauna, flora and nat­ural fea­tures of the region, from upland Pied­mont for­est through broad mead­ows to the Mid­dle River water­front. Small signs help in the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of sev­eral tree species – tulip poplar, red oak, sycamore and beech, among them.

Leakin Park water­wheel. Photo by Cham via Flickr

Almost imme­di­ately after leav­ing the I-70 Park-N-Ride, an aban­doned mill and his­toric water­wheel greet the trav­eler to Leakin Park. After two switch­backs, the trail leads to a broad open space – the remains of the Russian-inspired Crimea Estate estab­lished in 1856 by indus­tri­al­ist Thomas Winans. An 1857 root cel­lar and ice house are among the struc­tures still on the prop­erty. The Crimea Estate was pur­chased in the 1940s to cre­ate Leakin Park.

Nearby are the trail head­quar­ters and the Car­rie Mur­ray Nature Cen­ter. The city Depart­ment of Recre­ation and Parks con­ducts pro­grams to teach vis­i­tors about the urban envi­ron­ment, wildlife and plants along the trail. The depart­ment also pro­vides canoe, kayak and bike trips.

Photo by Nathalie Cone via Flickr

Dur­ing the 18th and 19th cen­turies, the waters of the Gywnns Falls were har­nessed to power early indus­trial devel­op­ment. Today, a por­tion of the Gwynns Falls Trail is atop the filled-in mill­race. The val­ley was lined with mills and fac­to­ries owned by peo­ple whose names still res­onate today, includ­ing the Elli­cott broth­ers’ mills and the Wilkens brush fac­tory. Through the 1800s the stream val­ley was a bustling indus­trial park, with flour mills, leather and broom works, and butchers.

With the emer­gence of elec­tri­cal power sys­tems in the late 1880s, com­pa­nies were no longer depen­dent on water power and close prox­im­ity to the Gwynns Falls. By the turn of the 20th Cen­tury, the tract was aban­doned. A few shells of stone fac­tory build­ings are vis­i­ble here and there along the trail.

In 1904, the city hired the Olm­sted broth­ers, who pre­vi­ously designed New York’s Cen­tral Park and Baltimore’s Roland Park. Olm­sted rec­om­mended that the city acquire land along the three major stream val­leys in the area – Gwynns Falls, Jones Falls and Her­ring Run – and cre­ate a sys­tem of tree-lined parks.

Broen­ing Park. Photo by Eric Perl­man via Flickr

In 1917, the city com­pleted Elli­cott Dri­ve­way atop the mill­race north of Fred­er­ick Road, cre­at­ing a scenic drive through the city that immerses the vis­i­tor under a lush canopy of tow­er­ing trees. Although no longer open to motor­ized traf­fic, the Elli­cott Dri­ve­way seg­ment is paved and level, ideal for jog­ging or push­ing a stroller.

South of Wilkens Avenue, the trail courses through the wagon pass under the his­toric Car­roll­ton Viaduct, mar­vel built of stone in 1829 as the first bridge of America’s first rail­road. An engi­neer­ing mar­vel at the time, the bridge is still in use today. The trail passes Car­roll Park, loca­tion of Mount Clare Man­sion, built in 1760 by Charles Carroll.

At street level, the trail con­tin­ues east­bound around M&T Bank Sta­dium and through Fed­eral Hill to the Inner Har­bor. The trail courses through an indus­trial stretch of water­front in South Bal­ti­more, under I-95 on Annapo­lis Road into West­port. At Water­view Avenue the trail reaches Mid­dle Branch Park, home of the Bal­ti­more Row­ing Club. The park obser­va­tion board­walks for view­ing estu­ary wildlife.

Photo by Nathalie Cone via Flickr

The trail passes near the Viet­nam Veteran’s Memo­r­ial and the boat launch­ing and fish­ing piers in Broen­ing Park before tra­vers­ing the water­front along­side Har­bor Hos­pi­tal Cen­ter. Near the south­ern trail­head are fish­ing piers and Cherry Hill – first noted by Cap­tain John Smith in 1608 for is red clay.

Over­all, the trail runs a down­hill grade from Franklin­town through down­town to Cherry Hill. The path is eas­ily man­age­able by bike or by foot, largely a paved sur­face with a few stretches of packed gravel or dirt. A few bridges, par­tic­u­larly in the sec­tion south of Wilkens Avenue, may present a chal­lenge to some. Tak­ing the route out­bound from down­town would present a steady upgrade, with sev­eral steep slopes and switch­backs through Leakin Park.

Despite the sketchy rep­u­ta­tion of some neigh­bor­hoods it passes through, the trail felt per­fectly safe on a recent sum­mer after­noon. Cell phone recep­tion was not a prob­lem at any point, and the trail is patrolled by the city police.

A guide and map of the Gwynns Falls Trail in PDF for­mat are here.

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