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The Midtown Greenway is a paved, grade-separated bicycle and pedestrian corridor across south Minneapolis, running just under six miles from the Chain of Lakes near Bde Maka Ska east to West River Parkway on the Mississippi River. For most of its length it follows the bottom of a railroad trench dug by the Milwaukee Road a century ago, passing under dozens of street bridges with no stops for traffic. Cyclists get a dedicated two-way path with a separate walking path beside it, night lighting, and winter plowing. The route crosses Hiawatha Avenue on the cable-stayed Martin Olav Sabo Bridge and passes the old Sears tower at Midtown Exchange. Grades are rail-flat end to end.
Midtown Greenway
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Midtown Greenway has about 102 to 142 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, birding, biking, running, and walking, with May, September, and October 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 Midtown Greenway!
In half of past years, color along the Midtown Greenway peaks October 19 to 30, typically around October 24. The trail has 15% deciduous coverage, with the majority being green ash, American basswood, northern red oak, and bur oak.
The Milwaukee Road dug a 22-foot-deep trench through south Minneapolis between 1912 and 1916 and never stopped running trains while it did. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad had laid this line, the Benton Cut-Off of its Hastings and Dakota division, from 1879 to 1881, when 29th Street was the southern edge of the city. By 1909 the railroad had finished its line to the Pacific and about two dozen freight and passenger trains a day crossed the neighborhood streets at grade. Minneapolis ordered the tracks lowered, and after years of lawsuits the city won in the United States Supreme Court in 1909. The railroad answered with a 2.8-mile trench and 37 concrete bridges. Sears built its mail-order warehouse beside the tracks at Lake Street in 1928. Rail use of the corridor ended in 1998, five years after the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority bought the right of way for future transit in 1993. Neighbors had already begun meeting as the Midtown Greenway Coalition in 1992 to push for a trail. The first three miles opened in August 2000, from Chowen Avenue to 5th Avenue South. Phase two reached Hiawatha Avenue in November 2004, and phase three carried the trail on to the Mississippi River in September 2006. The Martin Olav Sabo Bridge lifted the route over Hiawatha Avenue in November 2007. The Coalition has since planted thousands of trees and shrubs on the slopes, and the city plows and lights the trail year-round.
Kenilworth TrailSouth Cedar Lake TrailHiawatha LRT TrailLittle Earth TrailWest River ParkwayChain of Lakes paths
