B-Line Trail recognized as National Recreational Trail

The B-Line Trail, a 3.1-mile trail providing accessibility to downtown Bloomington, received national recognition last week when it was designated as a National Recreation Trail.

“I’ve long thought the B-Line would be an investment that would help further put Bloomington on the map, and now that’s literally the case,” Mayor Mark Kruzan said. “Everyone involved in making the trail a reality and every trail user should know they are part of an important bigger picture.”

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Director of the National Park Service Jonathan Jarvis made the announcement that, due to its connection to downtown attractions, the B-Line will become one of 53 trails in 23 states to receive the designation.

“We’re the only one in Indiana, so it’s a very unique and prestigious designation,” said Mick Renneisen, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, which oversaw the construction of the trail beginning in 2008 and is responsible for its ongoing maintenance. “I would think the numerous ways the trail connects people to the community is a big factor.”

National Recreation Trail designation recognizes existing trails and trail systems that link communities to recreational opportunities on public lands and in local parks, according to a statement from the United States Department of the Interior. The B-Line Trail will receive a certificate of designation and a set of trail markers in recognition of its newest honor.

The trail’s popularity is most noticeable during Saturday’s Farmers’ Market, Renneisen said, when 10,000 people commute to the Shower’s complex. Many of these people, he said, either bike or walk on the trail for transportation.

But it is also used simply for exercise.

“More people than ever are using the trail for exercise, recreation and transportation. It’s been an economic driver as well,” Renneisen said. “It’s an active community. It values highly the connection the B-Line Trail project has presented to the community.”

Both the Clear Creek Trail and Rail Trail were established in Bloomington before the B-Line Trail was built. But neither of the trails, Renneisen said, connected to anything.
But with the addition of the B-Line Trail, which used to be a railroad track dividing the city east to west, the B-Line, Rail and Clear Creek trails now come together to form a continuous 7.5-mile trail system.

This connectivity, Renneisen said, has increased foot traffic on all three trails, but the B-Line Trail remains the most used.

In the 1800s, the path was used to deliver raw material to the community when Bloomington’s downtown was a central hub for industrial-type uses, Renneisen said, such as when the Showers Building was a furniture factory.

“The railroad tracks were a divider of the community, and that’s no longer the case,” Renneisen said. “Drawing improvements on top of what was once the railroad have created a common feature that everyone can use.”

And this use, he said, is about to extend even further as the city works on the Switchyard Park Property master planning process. The southern part of the B-Line Trail travels through the former switchyard property and was a major consideration in the area’s design ideas as a large community park.

“The switchyard park would just become yet another anchor,” Renneisen said. “Imagine the Farmers’ Market as a programmatic anchor on the downtown section. ... Then imagine on the other end of this 3.1-mile trail a large community park that draws people to that end. I think you can see how powerful the B-Line has become as a driver of other economic development activities that might occur around the trail.”