Forbidden Drive

Forbidden Drive is a wide, car-free gravel road that follows Wissahickon Creek through the wooded gorge of Wissahickon Valley Park in northwest Philadelphia. It runs about six and a half miles from Harper's Meadow near Northwestern Avenue down the creek past Bells Mill Road, the Thomas Mill Covered Bridge, Valley Green Inn, and Historic RittenhouseTown to the Schuylkill River Trail. The old turnpike grade is nearly level, and the crushed gravel is firm enough for most bikes with medium or wider tires. Walkers, runners, riders on horseback, and cyclists all share it, and it is the busiest trail in the park. Pennsylvania DCNR named it Trail of the Year in 2018.

• The name comes from a 1920s fight over cars: nearly 13,000 park goers, led by equestrian groups, rallied in 1921 and the road was closed to motor vehicles for good.
• Motor vehicles were already banned on the upper part of the drive in 1899 because of its dangerous curves and steep embankments.
• The Wissahickon Turnpike Company issued stock for a better road along the creek in 1834, and Philadelphia bought the turnpike for 35,000 dollars in 1868.
• More than 25 mills once lined the creek, turning out paper, cloth, carpets, gunpowder, lumber, ground grain, vegetable oil, dyes, and horseshoe nails.
• In 1690 William Rittenhouse built the first paper mill in North America on Monoshone Creek, just off the drive at what is now Historic RittenhouseTown.
• David Rittenhouse, the astronomer and surveyor, was born at the Rittenhouse homestead in 1732.
• The Thomas Mill Covered Bridge is the only remaining covered bridge in the Wissahickon; it was restored by the Works Progress Administration in 1938 and again in 1999.
• Valley Green Inn, built in 1850, is the last of the many taverns and roadhouses that once served travelers on the Wissahickon Turnpike.
• In 1964 a 1,250 acre section of the park was designated a National Natural Landmark for its gorge cut through Wissahickon schist.
• The valley was Lenni Lenape hunting and fishing ground before the mills came.

The first grist mill on the Wissahickon went up where the creek meets the Schuylkill in the late 1680s. In 1690 William Rittenhouse built the first paper mill in North America a short way upstream on Monoshone Creek. Over the next century and a half more than 25 mills lined the gorge, grinding grain and making paper, cloth, gunpowder, and nails. The mill road along the creek was rough. In 1834 the Wissahickon Turnpike Company issued stock for a better one, and construction began in 1840. Taverns and roadhouses followed the traffic; Valley Green Inn, built in 1850, is the only one still standing. Philadelphia established Fairmount Park in 1867 and bought the turnpike for 35,000 dollars in 1868, folding the valley into the park and letting the mills fade. Motor vehicles were banned from the upper drive in 1899 because of its curves and embankments. For 25 years drivers pushed to lift the ban. In 1921 nearly 13,000 park goers, led by the city's equestrian clubs, rallied against opening the road to cars. The Park Commission gave in, the whole drive stayed closed to motors, and the nickname Forbidden Drive stuck. Friends of the Wissahickon formed in 1924 out of that fight and has cared for the park ever since. The Thomas Mill Covered Bridge was restored in 1938 and 1999. Pennsylvania DCNR named Forbidden Drive its Trail of the Year in 2018.

• Harper's MeadowMILE 0Directions
• Bells Mill RoadMILE 0.5Directions
• Valley Green InnMILE 2.5Directions
• Historic Rittenhouse TownMILE 5.3Directions

• Pennsylvania DCNR · Forbidden Drive
• Circuit Trails · Forbidden Drive, part of the Wissahickon Valley Park Trail
• Friends of the Wissahickon · Forbidden Drive: Then to Now
• Friends of the Wissahickon · The Wissahickon Gorge
• Wikipedia · Wissahickon Valley Park
• Friends of the Wissahickon · Thomas Mill Covered Bridge
• Friends of the Wissahickon · Historic RittenhouseTown