The Ghost City Path Loop is Full in Cambria | WeConservePA – Cyber Tech

Authentic article written for Cambria County Conservation & Recreation Authority
Revealed with permission

After years of imaginative and prescient, planning, and devoted work, we’re thrilled to announce the completion of the Ghost City Path loop—making it the second largest looped rail path in the US!

The C & I Extension: A Dream A long time within the Making

The Ghost City Path’s story started in 1991 when the Kovalchick Salvage Firm made a beneficiant donation of 16 miles of the previous Ebensburg & Black Lick Railroad to Indiana County. What began as a 12-mile stretch between Dilltown and Nanty Glo has grown into an unimaginable 54-mile path system that now features a spectacular 32-mile steady loop.

In 1993, the Cambria & Indiana Railroad donated a further 4 miles often known as the Rexis Department alongside the C & I Extension of the Ghost City Path. Through the years, segments had been added as funding turned out there. And now, with the completion of a ~2-mile part in Nanty Glo, we’ve closed the loop and created one thing really extraordinary for residents and guests within the Cambria County area.

The ultimate $4.6 million venture included establishing two bridges over Cardiff Street and Beulah Street, constructing a pedestrian field culvert underneath Church Avenue, and reclaiming former mine lands. The work was rigorously deliberate in two phases, with the ultimate bridges put in to shut the hole and create an uninterrupted loop that permits guests to expertise the total breadth of the path with out retracing their steps.

A Legacy of Collaboration

This achievement represents the ability of collaboration. Designated as a Nationwide Recreation Path by the U.S. Division of the Inside, the Ghost City Path has benefited from partnerships between county authorities, state and federal companies by the Division of Conservation and Pure Sources, Division of Environmental Safety, and Pennsylvania Division of Transportation, native companies such because the Neighborhood Basis for the Alleghenies and the C & I Path Council, contractors, and numerous group supporters who believed within the imaginative and prescient.

The path can also be a part of the bigger Trans Allegheny Trails system and the Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition’s growing 1,500-mile path community by Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and New York. Every connection strengthens our area’s place as a premier outside recreation vacation spot.

Come Expertise Historical past

With the loop now full, there’s by no means been a greater time to discover the Ghost City Path. Whether or not you’re a severe bike owner tackling the total 32-mile loop, a household on the lookout for a scenic afternoon journey, a historical past buff wanting to discover industrial archaeology, or a nature lover searching for stunning woodlands and wildlife, this path system gives one thing particular.

The Ghost City Path tells the story of the place we’ve been—the growth and bust of the coal trade, the hardworking communities that powered America’s industrial revolution, and the resilience of nature reclaiming its place. There’s a motive it was acknowledged as Pennsylvania’s 2020 Path of the Yr!

We invite you to lace up your sneakers, hop in your bike, or put in your cross-country skis (in winter) and uncover why individuals from world wide are coming to expertise this exceptional achievement.