Penn State and regional officials joined together Friday, May 19, to celebrate the opening of the Bellefonte Central Rail Trail with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the trail head near Sunset Park in State College. Kim C. Steiner, director of The Arboretum at Penn State, welcomed everyone and noted that the trail will become a major artery in the Arboretum's internal trail project. The trail, which took five years to complete, follows the abandoned right-of-way for the Bellefonte Central Railroad for approximately a mile. The Bellefonte Central rail line followed a portion of the railroad built between 1884 and 1886. It carried passengers through 1946 and freight until 1975.
Steiner thanked the many government and community agencies that helped make the project a reality. Some $575,000 in funding was procured to open the trail. He contrasted the finished trail with what the overgrown site looked like at the beginning. "Four years ago, you had to crawl to get from here to about 400 yards down the trail."
Other speakers at the event included Jim Eckert, chief of staff for state Sen. Jake Corman; Karen Michael, assistant district executive for design, state Department of Transportation; Wes Fahringer, regional adviser for the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; and Robert Crum, planning director, Centre Regional Planning Agency.
The event, which was held in conjunction with Bike-to-Work Day, included a number of bike riders who showed up to be the first to traverse the newly opened trail. For photos from the event, check Penn State Live at http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2006_05_19_trail/index.html