The Great Western Trail is a

rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corr ...

in Illinois, United States.

Description

The trail occupies three non-contiguous sections of an abandoned

Chicago Great Western Railway The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the Iowa state line called the Minnesot ...

corridor in suburban

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and a section in Iowa that have been converted into biking and hiking trails. The

Illinois Prairie Path The Illinois Prairie Path (often called the Prairie Path and abbreviated IPP) is a network of of bicycle trails, mostly in DuPage County, Illinois. Portions of the trail extend west to Kane County and east to Cook County. Most of the trail i ...

trail is nearby.

Western section

The westernmost, and older, section of the Great Western Trail is located between western St. Charles in Kane County and eastern

Sycamore Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the Ancient Greek () meaning . Species of otherwise unrelated trees known as sycamore: * ''Acer pseudoplatanus'', a ...

DeKalb County DeKalb County may refer to one of several counties in the United States, all of which were named for Baron Johann de Kalb: * DeKalb County, Alabama DeKalb County is a County (United States), county in the Northeast Alabama, northeastern part ...

. This section was

right-of-way A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access h ...

that was abandoned in 1977. The path of fine crushed stone traverses unincorporated rural townships, natural

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s, some restored

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

s, and farmland. The trail also passes through

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

and Lily Lake and parallels

Illinois Route 64 Illinois Route 64 (IL 64, Illinois 64) is an east–west state highway in Northern Illinois. Its western terminus is at the Iowa state line, connecting with U.S. Route 52 in Illinois, U.S. Route 52 (US 52) and Iowa Highway 64 via th ...

Eastern section

The newer of the two sections, between

Villa Park Villa Park is a association football, football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, with a seating capacity of 42,918. It has been the home of Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witt ...

and

West Chicago West Chicago is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 25,614 at the 2020 census. It was formerly named Junction and later Turner Junction, after its founder, John Bice Turner, president of the Galena and Chicago Un ...

DuPage County DuPage County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 932,877, making it Illinois' second-most populous county. Its county seat ...

, is made up of right-of-way that was abandoned piecemeal throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. As the railway was abandoned, the government of DuPage County made upgrades to the path, and between 1990 through 1992, the trail was converted from a rail grade to a bicycle trail. The crushed stone path crosses some farmland and suburban areas. At the east end of the trail is a restored former CGW depot building. The Great Western trail also was extended to make a connection with the

in 1995. In 1998, a new bridge was built over

Interstate 355 Interstate 355 (I-355), also known as the Veterans Memorial Tollway, is an Interstate Highway and toll road, tollway in the western and southwest suburbs of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. Like most other toll roads in the northeastern ...

, while the next year, a new bridge was built over the West Branch of the

DuPage River The DuPage River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 tributary of the Des Plaines River in the U.S. state of Illinois. Course The river begins as two in ...

. A three-bridge pedestrian overpass, completed in 2012 in Lombard, spans St. Charles Road, the

Metra Metra is the primary commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 243 train station, stati ...

Union Pacific West Line The Union Pacific West Line (UP-W) is a Metra commuter rail line operated by Union Pacific Railroad in Chicago, Illinois and its western suburbs. Metra does not refer to its lines by particular colors, but the timetable accents for the Union Paci ...

tracks and Grace Street. The Lombard bridge complex is approximately 2 miles east of the

bridge, and these four bridges unify the eastern four miles of the trail. This eastern section of Great Western Trail starts at Villa Avenue in

joined to the Illinois Prairie Path and rejoins the Illinois Prairie Path just west of Prince Crossing Road in

. In 2018, the trail was extended further west to Sassafras Drive in West Chicago. The Great Western Trail is designated as DuPage County Highway 55 for its entire length.

References

External links

Friends of the Great Western Trails

Map of the Illinois segments of the Great Western Trail and local trail links

Great Western Trail
at TrailLink
Great Western Trail
at

Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity ttps://dceo.illinois.gov/smallbizassistance/beginhere/businessinformationcenter.html Business Information Center The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) is the code department of the Illinois state government that spons ...

Great Western Trail
at DeKalb County Government {{Bicycling in Chicago Bike paths in the Chicago metropolitan area Chicago Great Western Railway Protected areas of DeKalb County, Illinois Protected areas of DuPage County, Illinois Protected areas of Kane County, Illinois Rail trails in Illinois

Description

Western section

Eastern section

See also

References

External links