High Trestle Trail

High Trestle Trail is a rail trail running 25 miles (40 km) from Ankeny, Iowa, to Woodward, Iowa. The recreation trail opened on April 30, 2011. It is a paved recreational trail that runs through the counties of Polk, Story, Boone, and Dallas in Iowa. The trail's name is derived from a former 1913 bridge that spanned the Des Moines River between the towns of Madrid and Woodward. Conservation board directors and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation estimate that more than 3,000 people use this trail each week. The trail is a major component of a planned pair of 100-mile (160 km) loops that will meet near Des Moines. he 13-story (40-meter) high and nearly half-mile (770-meter) long trestle bridge provides scenic views of the Des Moines River Valley and is located near mining shafts that were worked by Italian immigrant families and others who settled nearby. The bridge decking incorporates a decorative structure that represents the view through a mine shaft, and its design includes decorative lighting that remains on until midnight. The bridge was originally built in the 1970s to carry rail traffic on a Milwaukee Road line. With the retirement of that rail line in the early 2000s, the original bridge deck was removed, and its steel I-beams were reused for a new Union Pacific bridge in Boone, Iowa. However, the piers (or trestles) remained in place, and the original piers now support a new deck designed for pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Between the removal of the original decking and the construction of its replacement, the single-file line of unconnected concrete piers was informally known as "Iowa's Stonehenge." April 2, 2015, the BBC designated the High Trestle Trail Bridge as one of the eight amazing footbridges in the world.