The 18.5-mile Mount Vernon Trail is vying for the Rails to Trails Conservancy’s 2026 Trail Hall of Fame and needs public votes to win the accolade.
Mount Vernon Trail is one of three nominees for Rails to Trails Conservancy’s Hall of Fame, which the nonprofit has been recognizing multi-use trails on since 2007. Other nominees this year are the National Battlefield Trail in Texas and the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail in Ohio. Online voting started Aug. 5 and closes Aug. 16. Mount Vernon Trail fans can vote daily.
“This nomination is a tremendous honor for the Mount Vernon Trail and for everyone who has helped make it such a treasured community resource,” said Judd Isbell, president of the nonprofit Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail.
The Rails to Trails Conservancy is a non-profit organization that opened in 1986 and has worked to convert more than 42,000 miles of unused rail lines into multi-use paths. The organization also advocates for trail funding and the development of more multi-use trails nationwide.
“Hall of Fame trails have been selected based on merits such as scenic value, high use, trail and trailside amenities, historical significance, accessibility, excellence in management and maintenance of facility, community connections and geographic distribution,” according to Rails to Trails Conservancy.
The Mount Vernon Trail runs along the Potomac River from Theodore Roosevelt Island in Arlington to George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate. National Park Service data shows that more than 1.4 million residents and visitors use the path every year for everything from running and biking to viewing wildlife.
The Mount Vernon Trail opened for public use in 1972 as a gravel trail. By the late 1970s, the National Park Service began both expanding the trail and paving it in sections, including building better bridges over marshlands. According to the Rails to Trails Conservancy, the trail is a “prime example of the power of trails to connect people to each other, recreation, transportation, nature and other trails.”
Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail is a local organization that works to preserve, improve and promote the trail. The group also won the “Trail of the Year” award from the Public Lands Alliance in February.
Community events, such as trail clean-ups, and more information are available on the organization’s website.
