- Cedar Lake Trail
The Cedar Lake Trail is America's first bike freeway. It is a
rail trail located on the west side ofMinneapolis, Minnesota and was inaugurated on February 17, 1995.The trail features two separate one-way lanes for bike traffic and one two-way lane for pedestrian traffic. The paved trail runs from downtown Minneapolis to connect with the city's most popular bike trails in the west suburbs. The trail follows the
BNSF Railway line west out of downtown Minneapolis.The trail connects with other Minneapolis trails as follows:
* A bridge over the BNSF tracks connects to Bryn Mawr park and a trail along Bassett Creek
* A short spur leads to Parade Stadium and provides a connection to Kenwood Parkway
* A longer spur, theKenilworth Trail , follows the oldChicago and North Western Railway branch along the east side of Cedar Lake. This provides a connection to the Midtown Greenway Trail, theSouthwest LRT Trail , and the trails aroundLake Calhoun .
* Another spur follows the west shore of Cedar Lake.
* On the west end of the trail at Highway 100, the trail connects with the Hutchinson Spur Trail, which cuts across St. Louis Park and ends up in Hopkins.The trail is located in areas that were formerly railroad yards for the Great Northern Railway and the
Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway . WhenBurlington Northern Railroad (the successor to Great Northern) consolidated its facilities elsewhere, and the Chicago and North Western (the successor to Minneapolis and St. Louis) dismantled the MSTL facilities, the land became available for use as parkland.External links
* [http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/cedarlake.pdf Cedar Lake Trail map] (pdf)
* [http://www.cedarlakepark.org/] Cedar Lake Park Association
* [http://www.co.hennepin.mn.us/portal/site/HCInternet/menuitem.3f94db53874f9b6f68ce1e10b1466498] Hennepin County Bike map
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