YouTuber Nathan Carrick has posted a brief video showing some of the latest construction progress on the Georgetown Branch at the Connecticut Ave. crossing as well as at Wisconsin Ave in Bethesda. I have wanted to visit the construction site for weeks and am thankful he posted some footage. I was most curious about the old team tracks hidden in the woods at Conn. Ave (in the video, they are behind the excavator) and it appears they are still there, as the area is marked with red tape to preserve the forest. (thankfully) Don’t know how long that will last, but it’s nice to see for now.
Seeing the Branch torn up is painful as they are erasing many vestiges of the original right-of-way that will never be replaced. At the same time, it’s somewhat thrilling to me to think about riding a train on the old RoW once again.
Thanks for the share! Your post adds great context beyond what I knew about the trail, and I’m glad I’ve found this blog as a result. Awesome work!
Nathan, you’re most welcome. If you’d ever like to get a feel for what the Branch looked like in ages past, take look in the Gallery section of the website, here: http://gallery.sluggyjunx.com/railroad_and_industrial/georgetownbranch/gb_prototype_photos
Hate to be a Debbie downer, but there will be no right of way left, as it were, once the purple line is finished. They’ll be tearing down the trestle and pretty much destroying the entire trail in order to lower the grade. Why, I don’t know as it seems like a pretty big waste of a good trail and it’ll only make construction take far longer. The big argument for the line in the first place was that it was going to “resuse” the grade, not eliminate it.