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The East Bay Regional Park District celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, having accumulated countless triumphs in preservation, conservation and recreation over the decades.
As the largest regional park district in the nation, it attracts 30 million visitors every year to its 73 parks in 126,809 acres, 1,330 miles of trail and 55 miles of shoreline.
However, the district has not always been so substantial.
In the 1980s, it began construction of one of its largest offerings: a 34.3-mile multi-use path from Concord to Pleasanton called the Iron Horse Regional Trail, whose story begins at the end of the line. The San Ramon Valley Branch Line.
Southern Pacific Railroad established the railway through the Iron Horse corridor in 1891, according to a written history by former park district director and ex-Danville mayor Beverly Lane.
It carried freight and passengers from Avon (nearby Martinez) to San Ramon and was later extended to Pleasanton.
As the 20th century carried on, cars and trucks pushed the train out of popularity, and in 1978 Southern Pacific received approval to abandon it.
Within a year, the company removed the tracks.
Concern flared among citizens and officials in Contra Costa and Alameda counties as the company began selling the right-of-way (land used for the railway) in pieces, according to Robert Doyle, former trail coordinator and retired general manager of EBRPD.
They feared losing control of how local streets and utilities were built, because the right-of-way runs through neighborhoods and covers underground utilities and pipelines that serve electricity and gas.
Quickly, the counties began buying most of the right-of-way.
Citizens and local governments discussed its future as a light rail, road, BART extension or trail, Doyle said.
As debates boiled on, a foreshadow fell on the trail as residents used the right-of-way as a path for walking and running, Lane recalled in her written history.
A particularly influential committee called The Right of Way Trail Advocates (ROWTA), founded in 1984 by members including Lane and Bick Hooper, came out in support of a multi-use trail, according to Hooper.
At a meeting, Doyle shared the district’s aspiration for a regional trail, as written in EBRPD’s 1976 Master Plan, Lane said.
Doyle recognized transportation by bike trail was considered unrealistic at the time, as a Contra Costa County official had previously told him the goal was a “pipe dream”.
Nevertheless, ROWTA was on board for a regional trail.
The committee went from homeowner organization to town council to community meeting, promoting the benefits of a regional path, according to Hooper.
He recalled suggesting, “It was a way for people to travel up and down the valley safely, on bikes or walking. It was a way for children to safely go from their homes, near the trail, to their schools.”
Residents and officials responded with some concern. They worried a trail might bring excessive pedestrian traffic and garbage, according to Doyle.
Sentiments changed once other potentials were fleshed out.
“When people started talking about vehicles or a light-rail system going down these right-of-ways, the neighborhood groups (and) the homeowners associations, were really, really opposed, so the trail became the best alternative,” Doyle said.
Support for the trail continued to grow after light rails and roads were determined unfeasible because of the number of residential street crossings with schools, he said.
Eventually, Contra Costa County agreed to license part of the right-of-way to EBRPD to build a trail.
By 1986, construction began and within a year the first segment was completed, according to Lane’s written history. It connected Alamo to West Prospect Avenue in Danville and was originally called “The San Ramon Valley Iron Horse Regional Trail,” she wrote in an email. By name, the trail carried on the legacy of trains (aka iron horses).
Decades later the route was recognized as a Millennium Trail, as part of a national initiative to recognize, promote and stimulate the creation of trails.
Now, the Iron Horse sees roughly 3,000 to 4,000 trips per day by commuters and recreationists as they bike, walk, run and skate along the path through nature and suburb, according to EBRPD trails program manager Sean Dougan.
“Our goal is, wherever you live in the East Bay, to have access to regional parks and trails nearby,” EBRPD Board President Elizabeth Echols said of the district’s overall mission.
Some time in the future, the district plans to extend the trail to over 50 miles, Echols said. The completed route will reach from Alameda County to the San Joaquin County line to Suisun Bay in Contra Costa County.
“I think that it’s just a marvel: Of starting at the grassroots level, to advocate for the existence of this, to the position that it is today — The pedestal that this trail sort of sits on, this example that it is of (a) transportation facility,” Dougan said. “It’s a magnificent piece of work.”
For more information on the Iron Horse Regional Trail as well as upcoming events and programs in celebration of the district’s 90th anniversary, visit ebparks.org.
