RICHMOND, Va -- One of Richmond's most iconic features is something that we see and hear so often we almost forget it's there.
The three-milelong elevated railroad trestle - the CSX Viaduct (formerly C&O) is an engineering marvel - one of the longest elevated tracks in the nation when it was completed in 1901.
Now, a portion of the area beneath it is slowly becoming Richmond's Low Line park - sort of an upside-down take on New York City's famous elevated park on an old rail line.
It's a riverside beautification project for sure. But It's also a carefully designed reserve that will be filled with mostly indigenous plants arranged to slow the water to protect the river in this drainage basin.
But the Low Line will also give the lowdown on this amazingly historic stretch of Richmond, which was burned to the ground during the Civil War.
It was our port and lifeline.
Church Hill blocked city's railway traffic to the east until the deadly Church Hill Tunnel was built and eventually abandoned for its instability when the historic viaduct was constructed to truly open us to the east.
But perhaps the most amazing part of this story is how a disparate group of volunteers, non-profits and others have come together to transform this essential corridor in the city, to design a landscaped paradise for humans, the river and its creatures.
