In total, more than 21,000 miles of railroad track has become paths across the country, according to the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.
The Army built two towers to house men whose needs did not run to high esthetics, and then it blasted a path for a railroad track through the mountains, over wetlands and on to Anchorage, about 45 miles away.
And trains failed to produce a real sense of panic because people do not often think of themselves walking along a railroad track into a train's path.
The road, first a stage path and then a railroad route, got a smooth, wood-plank surface in 1912.
The MKT Trail links downtown Columbia to the Katy Trail, a limestone path following the old Kansas Texas Railroad route between Sedalia and St. Charles.
There is also hiking along the abandoned bed of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad track, now part of Patriot's Path, a 45-mile Morris County hiking trail.
Flowers are fixtures at each of the stations along the railroad's path, climbing up faded stucco facades and crowding window boxes.
The World Trade Center Downtown Restoration Program datum is closely related to that of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, now PATH, which was integral to the development of the twin towers in the 1960's.
West Lebanon was the only other settlement near the railroad's path, but the line bypassed it by about a mile; the town subsequently moved northward to be nearer the station.
The Katy Trail, a 3.5-mile path for biking and walking along a disused railroad track, is about five blocks away.
