Shepherd Branch Trail

The 3.1-mile Shepherd Branch Trail was envisioned in 2004 as a component of the DC Streetcar Project.

The Shepherd Branch rail corridor parallels the east side of the Anacostia Freeway from C Street SE to Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.

Exile to Main Street

From the Washington City Paper:

The Shepherd Industrial Spur is hardly an iconic piece of D.C. real estate. For starters, it’s an unused rail line in an out-of-the-way spot, running its 6 miles in the shadow of the Anacostia Freeway. The spur these days is overrun with litter, car parts, and weeds that have prospered in the three years or more since trains carried chemicals to and from the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant in the southern corner of the city. But early last year, city planners saw an opportunity underneath the trash and foliage.

Instead of leaving the spur in its fallow state, why not convert it into a light-rail transit system? The passenger trains would run from Pennsylvania Avenue SE to Bolling Air Force Base, stopping at key spots in between. Along the way, the Anacostia Light Rail Demonstration project would clean up a portion of what had become a 6-mile-long dumping ground, create a magnet for future development, and finally show east-of-the-river residents that big-scale projects happen somewhere other than downtown.

Shepard Branch Trail

Last year, DDOT completed a preliminary study for the Shepherd Branch trail. This trail would run from C St. SE to South Capitol St. SE (past Anacostia metro) along the discontinued CSX rail corridor (see map at end). Based on the potential cost of land acquisition from CSX, DDOT is deciding to place design and construction of this trail on hold indefinitely.

An arial view of the park trails on a map.

The Southwester, Anacostia Riverkeeper and Pope Branch Park Restoration Alliance Host Biggest MLK Day Cleanup on Record

Preview of The Southwester

Southeast activists gain traction after years of “environmental apartheid”

Dolly Davis stepped outside her Fairlawn Avenue residence in the Southeast section of the district. She immediately noticed a pile of discarded tires and two shopping carts.

The unused railroad tracks across the street from her home were overgrown with vegetation and full of trash. Davis, 64, first envisioned a recreational trail in place of the neglected tracks in 1999.

“I believe it’s gonna happen. It may happen after I die, I don’t know,” Davis said. “The point is, after working on this for free for 25 years, we gotta care. Somebody’s gotta do this.”

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