Westerville Bikeway and Leisure Path
115 East Park StreetWesterville, Ohio 43081
614-901-6515 | www.westerville.org/parks
A peaceful ribbon through the community, the Westerville Bikeway & Leisure Path provides walkers and cyclists with a pleasurable passage along 29 miles of trails.
A peaceful ribbon through the community, the Westerville Bikeway & Leisure Path provides walkers and cyclists with a pleasurable passage along 29 miles of trails. Users can enjoy the path via several access points throughout the city. Westerville seized the opportunity to claim its rail line for a bike path. Much of the path follows the right-of-way of the old Pennsylvania Railroad. The rail line was shut down in 1982 when service to Mt. Vernon ended. Moving down the path takes for you for a ride through the history of the community. One can still see the residue of a century of industrial activity along these corridors. We recommend starting the 6.7 mile County Line-Schrock Loop Trail that begins at the train depot on Park Street. Two distinctive bridges are along the route. A beautiful pedestrian bridge over County Line Road, opened August 2014, graces the path and is nearly the center point of the Ohio to Erie Trail. A bridge of historic significance along the pathway is a Whipple truss bridge -- an engineering style of the 1840s -- that crosses Alum Creek south of Alum Creek Park. Previously spanning Big Darby Creek along Beech Road, the bridge was dismantled, relocated, and reassembled in 1999-2000. New rail and metal decking were installed and the original decorative abutment stone was reinforced with concrete. At the time of its re-installment, the Franklin County Engineer’s office deemed it the last bridge of its kind in the county.
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