Constitution Trail

The Constitution Trail is a multi-use rail trail located in Illinois. It occupies an abandoned Illinois Central Gulf Railroad corridor that runs through the 'Twin Cities' of Bloomington and Normal in McLean County, Illinois.

The trail, which is owned by the municipalities of Bloomington and Normal, is used by bikers, inline skaters, walkers, runners and skiers, and covers approximately 24 mi (39 km). of former railways. It features the Camelback Bridge in Normal, a site on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Its official opening was May 6, 1989. In 2000, the trail was officially named a "Millennium Trail" by the White House Millennium Council.^[1]

• 

  Camelback Bridge, overlooking the trail.

• 

  One of the many wooden bridges overlooking Bloomington City streets.

• 

  A "fork" in the trail featuring an old railway signal.

Trail Structure

In addition to the main strip of the trail, there are several branches that lead to more remote areas of the Bloomington-Normal area. The main strip begins at Grove Street east of downtown Bloomington, and extends north to Kerrick Rd. north of Normal. The trail currently ends there, but may be picked up again approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) east at Towanda Ave. There is also a branch in the north section that may be picked up at Linden St. and extends along Raab Rd. to Towanda Ave. The West branch of the trail can be picked up at Vernon Ave. and extends to the Northwest past Illinois State University Golf Course (between Raab Rd. and Gregory St.), and ends at Heartland Community College on Raab Road. The east branch is near Vernon Ave. and extends to past Airport Rd. to route 29 (with a few additional branches in that area). The southwest branch begins at Lincoln Street and extends through the southern downtown area of Bloomington and continues west to Illinois Route 9 west of Bloomington. The southeast branch is picked up at Hamilton Rd. and extends to Central Illinois Regional Airport.

There are other smaller sections of trail located in various places around Bloomington and Normal, and there are also "proposed" sections of trail that will effectively link most of these scattered sections together.

References

1. ^ "A Brief History". Friends of the Constitution Trail. Archived from the original on 2008-05-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20080502225416/http://www.constitutiontrail.org/history.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-07. 

External links

• Town of Normal
• City of Bloomington
• Official website of The Constitution Trail