RailTrailWxRailTrailWx
E-bikingBikingWalkingRunningand more
The Metropolitan Branch Trail is a paved trail through northeast Washington, D.C. It starts at Union Station and heads north beside the old B & O Metropolitan Branch rail corridor and the Metro Red Line. It passes through Edgewood, Brookland, and Fort Totten to Takoma, where the off-street trail ends today at Blair Road and Aspen Street. The grade is gentle, rising slowly from Union Station toward Takoma. Several Metro stations sit along the way, so a one-way outing with a train back is easy. This is a city trail with open sky, rail lines, apartment blocks, and some street connections. The planned link north to Silver Spring is not built yet.
Metropolitan Branch Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Metropolitan Branch Trail has about 119 to 165 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, birding, running, biking, and walking, with April, October, and November the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Metropolitan Branch Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Metropolitan Branch Trail peaks November 3 to 11, typically around November 7. The trail has 21% deciduous coverage, with the majority being yellow-poplar, sweetgum, red maple, white oak, and chestnut oak.
Pierre L'Enfant's plan for the federal city marked the south end of this corridor as an extension of Delaware Avenue. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad later claimed the ground for its Metropolitan Branch. Planning began in 1865. B & O president John Garrett had come to see that if he did not build a western line out of Washington, someone else would. Construction started in 1866 and moved slowly at first. The final rails went down in February 1873. The line officially opened on May 25, 1873. It brought a cheaper way to move goods into the capital. Until a streetcar reached Michigan Avenue in 1894, it was also Brookland's only mass transit. Its tracks passed close to the house of Colonel Jehiel Brooks. In 1890 Catholic University gave land for University Station, a granite depot. Fire struck it in 1940. The trail now runs beside the corridor and the Metro Red Line. The District Department of Transportation completed its first piece, along John McCormack Road, in November 1998. A segment that opened in May 2010 made the District section usable from end to end. The Brookland to Fort Totten link opened in June 2022. A 1.7 mile Fort Totten to Takoma segment opened on November 12, 2025. The Takoma to Piney Branch gap is the last unbuilt piece in the District, and the Maryland link to Silver Spring is still to come.
None
