The National Park Service has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to remove the Foundry Branch Trestle Bridge, the last remaining streetcar trestle in Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown area.
What will happen to the bridge and trail
The 280-foot wooden trestle, built in 1896 and formerly carrying the Glen Echo Line, has been deteriorating for decades. The structure carried streetcars from Georgetown past Glen Echo Park in Montgomery County, Maryland, until service ended in 1960. Over time the bridge became overgrown and weather-worn; falling debris prompted the closure of the Glover-Archbold Trail beneath the span in 2016.
Under the agreement, WMATA will demolish the trestle but will "
preserve and protect the remaining concrete Trestle footers (in place) to provide tangible evidence of the former location." After removal, the Park Service says the area will be re-established with native vegetation and the Glover-Archbold Trail will be reopened to the public.
Interpretation and public access
The Park Service plans to install signage along Canal Road NW describing the trestle’s historical and architectural significance and explaining its role in the Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway Company operations. The signage will be sited to be accessible to all visitors.
- Structure: Foundry Branch Trestle Bridge, largely wooden trestle
- Length: 280 feet
- Built: 1896
- Service ended: 1960 (Glen Echo Line)
- Trail status: Glover-Archbold Trail closed in 2016 due to falling debris; planned reopening after demolition
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Bridge type | Wooden trestle with concrete footers |
| Ownership | WMATA |
| Land | Federal parkland (Glover-Archbold Park) |
The trestle sits within Glover-Archbold Park, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites. Since at least 2014 the National Park Service has carried out feasibility and engineering studies to determine whether the bridge could be preserved or integrated into the park landscape. Those studies led to the current agreement for removal while retaining physical evidence of the structure.
The Park Service characterised the project as necessary to keep the park functioning as a greenway extending from upper Northwest Washington to the Potomac River, while balancing public safety and historic interpretation. The demolition will be followed by landscape restoration and installation of interpretive signage along Canal Road NW, intended to be accessible to visitors.
The decision closes a chapter on a late-19th-century streetcar structure that has remained visible from Canal Road near Georgetown University but has not carried transit for more than six decades. For local residents and trail users, the immediate outcome will be the eventual reopening of the Glover-Archbold Trail and new signage explaining the site’s history.
