Nestled in an iconic vacation destination about 75 miles down the coast from Boston, the flavor of the Cape Cod Rail Trail is pure summertime.

Forming an emerald arc around western portion of the District of Columbia, the Capital Crescent Trail connects Washington to its Maryland suburbs.

For Women’s History Month, we honor this visionary woman and others who have made extraordinary impacts in their own communities and for the nation. In some cases, their legacy lives on in the names of trails that are used and loved by communities.

In the late 1890s, an African-American dynamo exploded onto the bicycle racing scene at record-breaking speeds: Marshall “Major” Taylor.

On the anniversary of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s (RTC's) founding, rail-trail visionary and co-founder David Burwell passed away on Feb. 1, 2017, after a hard-fought battle with leukemia.

May Theilgaard Watts was a writer, illustrator, naturalist, scientist and teacher. Her determination that Americans stay connected to their natural landscape in a time of increasing urbanization was the catalyst that led to the formation of the Illinois Prairie Path,

In 2016, RTC celebrated its 30th anniversary and the birth and evolution of the American Rail-Trail Movement.

In honor of RTC’s 30th anniversary, here are 10 game-changers of the rail-trail movement.

Susan B. Anthony, famed suffragette leader and women’s rights reformer, once said of the bicycle, “I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.”

Right now, in the middle of the 21st-century bike boom, the rail-trail movement is the most successful way to build trails for bikers and walkers. But it’s certainly not the first; many other plans for trail building have come and gone.