ECO SOLUTIONS

This trail begins on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in southwest Philadelphia. The trail traverses Bartram’s Garden, the oldest botanical garden in North America. Resuming on the eastern riverbank as a paved trail, it passes through an old industrial area—Grays Ferry Crescent—that’s now a park. It is included in the East Coast Greenway, which one day will span 3,000 miles from Maine to Florida. The trail, now covering about 71 miles, follows the route of old canals and the Pennsylvania Railroad that hauled resources out of the anthracite coalfields. Planning for the trail began in the late 1960s, with construction starting in the 1990s and continuing today.