New York State welcomed the New Year with ceremonies marking completion of the Empire State Trail, a network of 750 miles of uninterrupted hiking and biking paths that cross the state east to west and north to south.
The project, underway since 2017, built the network by connecting thirty disconnected existing segments totaling about 400 miles with 180 new offroad miles and 175 miles following roads in a total of 58 projects. The three main legs all connect in Albany, fanning out north to Lake Champlain, west to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, and south to New York City. Total cost of the projects was a bit over $200 million.
The system, claimed to be the longest state-operated multi-use trail in the country, is exceeded only by the hikers-only Appalachian trail at 2,200 miles. New York officials say they expect 8.6 million users a year, including both multi-day trekkers and local day-trippers, and believe it will be a magnet for out-of-state visitors as well.
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