Biking a Trail of History from Pittsburgh to Washington

A virtually car-free trip of this length was not possible just a couple of years ago: The Allegheny Passage was finished in 2013 after more than 20 years of work. Now, except for a few tiny stretches on public highways, the only obstructions on this journey were hikers, people on horseback and, near the historic sites, occasional clusters of slow-moving Boy Scouts. (Trail distances are numbered from east to west, though most cyclists ride it in the other direction.)

Instead of worrying about traffic, travelers can soak up the agrarian patches of Pennsylvania that would have made Jefferson smile, dip into a few blue-collar former industrial strongholds, and explore the canal that is a vestige of a bygone transportation network. So with my companions, all cyclists but none of us avid “Lycra louts,” I set off on a journey in the fall, keeping diligent notes about what I saw.

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