A new documentary tells the story of a grassroots movement, fierce pushback, national tensions, controversies and the transformation of the American landscape across 55 minutes. It showed at the Atlanta HIstory Center on Jan. 29 to a large local crowd.
And it’s all about abandoned railroads turned to sprawling trails.
“From Rails to Trails” is a new PBS documentary by filmmaker Dan Protess that explores the history of a grassroots movement to convert the country’s long-abandoned rail lines into multi-use paths for cyclists and pedestrians.
It is based on Peter Harnik’s book “From Rails to Trails: The Making of America’s Active Transportation Network” and his work co-founding the Rails to Trails Conservancy. But the film begins long before a movement was born. It starts with the rail lines.
While today’s rail system is still chugging along, it cannot compare to the peak of railroads in the United States. They took off in the mid-1800s thanks to rapid industrialization and passenger demand. Before 1871, there were about 45,000 miles of track; by 1900 another 170,000 miles had been added.
It was the heyday of rail lines. There were transcontinental railroads and smaller routes, with different companies each building their own path to the same destination. The country’s landscape was littered with train tracks.
But the boom did not last forever. As rail declined in popularity and cars became the standard, rail companies shuttered and lines were abandoned. Once bustling tracks sat unused and overgrown for years.
This is where the Rails to Trails movement formally begins. It is also where the documentary takes off into a tale of conflict and community. Organizers worked for change, property owners fought back and the national government even got involved.
As it moves from the first rail trails to the Highline in New York City, the documentary eventually lands at the future of the movement: The Beltline.
But what sets Atlanta’s “rail trail” apart?
On Jan. 29 at the Atlanta History Center screening, Atlanta Beltline, Inc. CEO Clyde Higgs, Trust for Public Land Southeast Vice President George Dusenbury and Peter Harnik provided some answers.
“Why is it so successful? Because it was born from community, and that is truly our superpower,” Higgs said.
But Higgs admits the Beltline was not a guaranteed success. In the early days, Mayor Shirley Franklin received alleged “death threats” for her support of the project and public opinion called it a “boondoggle.”
Still, local leaders kept working on the 22-mile loop — they just did it with a plan and support from major organizations like the Trust for Public Land.
Peter Harnik laid out a “breakthrough realization” his movement had, and it echoes the Beltline plan.
“You really need three components to make a successful trail,” Harnik said.
First, you need an advocacy group. Then you need a government agency to actually own and operate the trail, since nonprofits have limited resources. Finally, you need a plan.
“You either need a state or a city or a county or some entity, then you need a plan of action to be able to explain to the general public what you’re doing,” Harnik said. “We just had so many cases where you have a super strong advocacy group, and they failed because they didn’t have a plan and they didn’t have a government agency that was there to work with them.”
The Beltline succeeded on all three fronts. Higgs credits the Tax Allocation Districts and early government support for pushing the Beltline along, while Dusenbury credits the robust community engagement process.
“The key to the project is really understanding the community, and then working with them,” Dusenbury said.
He continued, “the best way to ensure that people are [going] to use it is by engaging right from the beginning.”
While the Beltline isn’t immune to controversy, it certainly boasts big numbers. Approximately 2 million people visit the transit corridor each year, and Higgs said it has generated north of $10 billion in private investment within the tax allocation district.
It’s the kind of turnout that makes longtime advocates like Peter Harnik hopeful for the future of the rails-to-trails movement, especially as the nonprofit keys up for hundreds of new projects.
“I am actually optimistic that this is one type of issue that can unify people across boundaries that they don’t necessarily agree with other people on,” Harnik said.
