York County Heritage Rail Trail - Historical Development

Historical Development

Historical Significance

The Heritage Rail Trail is located along the train tracks that were built during the nineteenth century as part of the Northern Central Railroad. The Northern Central Railroad was an incredibly important link between Washington, D.C. and points along the northern path all the way to Lake Ontario and upstate New York.

During the Civil War, the railroad was a target of the Confederate Army before the Battle of Gettysburg. The Confederate Army’s troops tried to isolate the Union's capital by damaging the railroad,telegraph wires, and bridges. On November 18 and 19, 1863, President Lincoln traveled stopped at the Hanover Junction before giving the Gettysburg Address.

History and Evolution

Between the years of 1838 and 1972, the Northern Central Railroad connected Baltimore, MD to York, PA and vastly contributed to the municipalities along the railroad. However, once "Penn Central Railroad went bankrupt in 1970 and Hurricane Agnes caused a lot of damage to the railroad in 1972, the rail tracks was left abandoned until the rights to the rail and area around it were bought by the county of York, Pennsylvania in 1990." In 1990, the York County Board of Commissioners created the Rail Trail Authority to assess and develop the abandoned 18.5 mile of the former Northern Central Railway. In 1999, the York Rail Trail Authority created "the county's first rail trail at a cost of $3.7 million." Expansion of the trail to 1.5 miles from John Rudy County Park to Crist Memorial Fields was completed in August 2007. Beginning in early 2012, a $1.3 million project to further extend to the Northern Extension of the Heritage Rail Trail County Park, included the "completion of the trail section on Crist Memorial Fields in Manchester Township, construction of a bridge for pedestrians and bicyclist across the Codorus Creek, and ramp approaches on the east and west banks of the creek."