Rotary Trail is a half-mile

linear park A linear park is a type of park that is significantly longer than it is wide. These linear parks are strips of public land running along canals, rivers, streams, defensive walls, electrical lines, or highways and shorelines. Examples of linea ...

in downtown

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

. The trail was predominantly funded by the Birmingham Rotary Club in honor of their centennial anniversary. The trail runs from 20th Street to 24th Street along First Avenue South and connects two major downtown areas: the 19-acre Railroad Park on one side, and Sloss Furnaces, a National Historic Landmark, on the other side. It opened in 2016. The entrance to the trail has a 46-foot-tall sign that reads, "Rotary Trail in the Magic City." The sign was modeled after the historical "Birmingham the Magic City" sign that previously existed in the city.

History

The Rotary Club contributed to the project with a $2.5 million commitment to a major public project in recognition of their centennial year in 2013. The project aimed to transform a railroad cut into a pedestrian greenspace. In addition to the major gift from the Rotary Club, the City of Birmingham contributed $2 million from a 2012 federal TIGER grant for drainage, streetscape and infrastructure improvements to enhance the project. Additional funding came from the Freshwater Land Trust, the Jefferson County Department of Health, the

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established in 1936, the institution became a four-year campus in 1966 and a fully autonomous univ ...

, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, the Goodrich Foundation, the Susan Mott Webb Foundation, the Alabama Department of Transportation,

Alabama Power Alabama Power Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a company in the southern United States that provides electricity service to 1.4 million customers in the southern two-thirds of Alabama. It also operates appliance stores. It is one ...

, and CSX. A dedication ceremony for the Rotary Trail and sign lighting was held on April 6, 2016. In November 2019, a public sculpture titled "Frank's Table" was dedicated on the eastern end of the trail.

Magic City sign

The western entrance to the trail features a sign that reads, "Rotary Trail in the Magic City." The sign is a nod to a previous Magic City sign. The sign was donated by BL Harbert International along with the donation of the raw materials from O'Neal Steel.

References

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