New GAP trail marker installed in Cumberland, Md.

Travelers on the Great Allegheny Passage will see a new marker at the start or end of their journey on the 150-mile trail that goes through Southwestern Pennsylvania.

The Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy on Wednesday unveiled a 48-inch granite medallion set in the ground at Mile 0 in Cumberland, Md., according to executive director Bryan Perry. The medallion acknowledges the town’s history as a transportation hub with the words “By Rail, By Road, By River.”

“This new medallion celebrates Cumberland’s prominence as the point of outfitting and launch for bicyclists and hikers on the GAP, and will give travelers an additional photo op in front of the historic Western Maryland Railway building,” Perry said.

The conservancy this year celebrated the 20th anniversary of the naming of the Great Allegheny Passage on a former rail line. The trail connects Pittsburgh to Cumberland and travelers can continue on to Washington, D.C. on the C&O Canal Towpath.

The trail runs through many small towns in Allegheny, Westmoreland, Fayette and Somerset counties and is maintained mostly by volunteer groups. It is used year-round by bicyclists, walkers, runners and others. After the rail lines were abandoned in the 1960s, local groups started buying sections and turning it into a trail, eventually connecting them all with the entire passage finished in 2013.

The trail was recently named among the Best Long Rail Trails in the U.S. by Bicycling magazine.

The old marker will be displayed in the Allegany Museum. Ashli Workman, director of tourism for Allegany County, said the new medallion is a symbol of a journey’s beginning or end. In 2020, the Great Allegheny Passage was visited by about 1.4 million people.

“… This location is the exact spot where so many bicyclists and hikers begin their 150-mile journey with a sense of excitement or end their memorable journey with a sense of accomplishment,” she said.