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Overview The East Coast Greenway is the nation's first long-distance urban trail system; a city-to-city transportation corridor for cyclists, hikers, and other non-motorized users. By connecting existing and planned trails, a continuous, safe, green route 3,000 miles long is being formed linking Calais, Maine at the Canadian border with Key West, Florida. It incorporates waterfront esplanades, park paths, abandoned railroad corridors, canal towpaths, and highway corridors, and in many areas it it temporarily follows streets and roads to link these completed trail sections together. Already, 21% of this route is along off-road trail and the aim is for it to be entirely off-road and traffic-free. The East Coast Greenway Alliance will continue to work toward that end until it is 100% off-road. Obviously, that will take many years, much as the Appalachian Trail has taken decades to be moved off-road. Many people are surprised to learn that the Appalachian Trail was largely on road too in the beginning! Our route will be an urban alternative to the Appalachian Trail, located in the flat coastal plain instead of up on the ridgeline of the Appalachains, and going through the heart of the 25 major cities along the eastern seaboard. It will offer a varied landscape, passing at times in the shadows of skyscrapers, at times winding through suburban neighborhoods, but also will often take the user into the surprisingly rural areas that still exist within our east coast Megalopolis. It will enable residents to travel short distances from their homes to local points of interest, and tourists to travel for a few days or even weeks to explore the rich history and culture within the East Coast region.  The ECG's southern gateway marker in Key West, FL is set in St. Croix granite from the Calais, ME area. The East Coast Greenway Alliance is the power behind this project, a non-profit organization that works via a staff based in Wakefield, RI and volunteer committees in each state to spearhead and coordinate this enormous trail-building effort. The Alliance will not own or directly manage any portion of this trail. Rather, it will be owned and managed by municipal, county and state agencies. The Alliance works to ensure continuity and a consistent quality of route. The off-road portions of the Greenway serve muscle-powered users of all abilities including cyclists, walkers, skaters, skiers, equestrians, and people in wheelchairs. Increased public use will be facilitated by moving more miles of this route off-road and by the marking of the route with ECG trail markers, the publication of maps, cue sheets and user guides, and the provision of common services such as food, accommodations, and emergency services. Back to the top The Need Greenway activity is moving ahead full-tilt all across the nation, but especially in the east where opportunities to restore public access to our rivers and waterfronts, to convert abandoned rail lines to new uses, and to make our communities more bicycle and pedestrian friendly have generated strong public involvement. However, the linking of these discrete locally-motivated greenway and trail projects to form a connected network of trails is by no means assured.  Savannah, Georgia is just one of the many cities linked by the East Coast Greenway. The East Coast Greenway will serve as an important connector, joining local trail to local trail. It will serve as a spine route, linking with other long distance trails like the coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail and the Hudson River Greenway, helping to make an interlinked national trail system. It will serve to link city to city, city to suburb, and suburb to rural area. It will connect such key sites as the capitals of most of the eastern seaboard states, major college campuses along the corridor, and many urban, state, and national park systems. Back to the top History The East Coast Greenway grew out of the East Coast Bicycle Conferences held bi-annually in the eighties to coordinate cycling advocacy in the northeastern states. It followed in the footsteps of the East Coast Bicycle Route, an on-road route mapped and signed to link east coast cities and youth hostels within the corridor.  Admiral Kenneth Moritsugu, deputy surgeon general of the US, lauds the health benefits of trails at the ECG's inaugural event on the National Mall in 2003. Over the next decade, significant steps were taken to build the Alliance and begin the monumental task of creating the East Coast Greenway. The ECGA officially incorporated in 1995, hired its first executive director in 1996, and secured official 501(c)3 nonprofit status in 1997. The Alliance also worked diligently to define a projected spine route and form committees in each of the states along the ECG. The Greenway’s first six trail segments were designated in 1996. As the project gained momentum, so too did the Alliance’s advocacy efforts. In 2000’s East Coast Greenway WAVE, water from the Gulf of Mexico was relayed up the coast from Key West to the Canadian border and on to Saint John, New Brunswick for an international trail celebration there. Dozens of local events involving officials and numerous ECG supporters were held in tows and cities all along the coast. As the water traveled northward, so too did news of a trail that would one day transform the East Coast. The following year, in 2001, the ECGA publicly designated Calais, Maine and Key West, Florida as the official gateways of the East Coast Greenway. This event linked the two cities via radio as the ECG’s gateway markers were unveiled. The southern gateway marker is set in St. Croix granite from the Calaias, Maine area. The stone is the same stone quarried for construction of the Calais branch of the Maine Central Railroad, the right of way that will one day become the northernmost section of the Greenway. Likewise, the northern gateway marker in Calais is set in Keys limestone, used in the construction of the Florida Overseas Railroad, now the site of the southernmost section of the ECG, the 106-mile Overseas Heritage Trail. Three years later, on June 15, 2003, the East Coast Greenway was officially inaugurated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. In advance of the event, letters of support written by mayors, governors, and other advocates were simultaneously carried to Washington from both of the Greenway’s gateway cites. This inauguration was devised to mark the coming of age of the ECG. Scores of government officials and ECG supporters converged on the National Mall for a presentation of the brass mid-point plaque and the unveiling of the ECG’s offical trail markers. Most recently, a group of cyclists made the inaugural end-to-end trip on the East Coast Greenway, riding from Calais to Key West over 53 days in the autumn of 2004. The event not only helped raise money to further the ECG project but also resulted in significant national media attention, securing coverage in outlets like USA Today, CNN, National Public Radio, the Christian Science Monitor, and major market newpapers from Boston to Miami. Today the East Coast Greenway is roughly 20 percent complete, with trail segments designated in all but three of the states along the trail’s corridor. Our 16 state committees are working harder than ever to move a significant portion of the trail off road by 2010. When complete, the East Coast Greenway will stretch over 3,000 miles and traverse an area inhabited by approximately 35 million people. It is, without question, one of the most ambitious trail projects in our nation’s history. A true American legacy, the Greenway is already beginning to transform communities and lives all along the East Coast. Back to the top Building the ECG The East Coast Greenway is a grass-roots trail development project. Because it is made up of locally owned and managed trails, decision making flows from the bottom up. The route will not be imposed by the Alliance but rather defined by people in each state, working through state committees which are coordinating route selection and moving the agenda ahead within each state. A great deal of the proposed route is already in public ownership, so costly and complicated acquisition is not needed. Because it will grow through the stitching together of locally owned and managed trail segments, implementation will be incremental and costs spread out to the many state and municipal agencies responsible for building their segments. Back to the top Managing the ECG Because the East Coast Greenway is a stitching together of shorter trails to form a longer continuous route, the East Coast Greenway is owned and managed by local bodies: state, county, and municipal agencies. Each local trail retains its identity as an independent facility, with a distinct local name as it assumes the added title of East Coast Greenway. Signs notifying users that the trail is part of the East Coast Greenway are posted, and the Alliance monitors trail conditions to ensure long-distance users of consistency in fundamental trail quality. Back to the top The Alliance The East Coast Greenway Alliance (ECGA) is a membership organization open to all individuals and organizations that support the ECGA mission. We are a national organization with state chapters (committees). We are currently governed by an 13-member board. Our national office is located in Wakefield, Rhode Island, and we have six full-time and two part-time staff members. A 21-member Trail Council oversees the trail development process and resolves routing or other trail policy issues. The Alliance also has a 15-member Advisory Board whose members provide expertise and other assistance to the effort. The Alliance plays an essential role in making the East Coast Greenway a reality. We set the vision, define clear criteria for the kind of trail to be created, provide the needed coordination among the many players who will develop, own, and manage the trail, and undertake the needed promotion to get this idea moving ahead and to get the public out using the trail. The Alliance board designates new sections of trail as part of the ECG. We will also provide continuous monitoring of the trail once it is built, to ensure the trail-using public of a safe, high quality trail experience. We have helped to organize committees in each state to define the route and help move it onto the public agenda, enabling local trail segments to garner needed funding, including federal transportation funding, the primary resource for building this trail. Back to the top Contact the East Coast Greenway Alliance: 27 North Rd, Wakefield RI 02879 Phone/fax: 401-789-4625 Email info@greenway.org East Coast Greenway® is a registered trademark of the East Coast Greenway Alliance, Inc., a non-profit organization. Donations to the East Coast Greenway Alliance are tax-deductible |
