Brian Lewis/The Gazette Pam Browning leads a walking group and points out how the trail will be effected toward Connecticut Ave out of Bethesda.
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Organizers of the "No Rail on the Trail" protest on Saturday against the Purple Line light rail project on the Capital Crescent Trail hope the event has the same success as efforts half a century ago to prevent a highway being built along the C&O Canal.
According to organizers, the 9 a.m. event attracted approximately 500 people to downtown Bethesda near the intersection of Woodmont and Bethesda avenues, with more than 350 participating in the 10-kilometer trail run to MacArthur Boulevard and back to downtown Bethesda.
Purple ribbons in the foliage showed visitors where trees would have to be cut down to make way for the Purple Line project, a proposed 16-mile transportation link between downtown Bethesda and New Carrollton via Silver Spring. The Planning Board and County Council have voted in favor of placing the light rail project along the trail, and Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) is scheduled to submit the project's locally preferred mode to the Federal Transit Administration this spring.
Markers also showed how close the rail would approach homes in the Edgevale neighborhood in Chevy Chase between Wisconsin Avenue and Connecticut Avenue.
"We wanted to give them the concrete information about what the plans are," said Bethesda resident Penina Maya, one of the walking tour guides along the trail.
She cited the example of late U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, who organized opposition to a proposed highway through the C&O Canal National Historical Park in 1954, including a hike along the canal for Washington Post editors.
Event organizer Pam Browning said similar events may be held in the future on the trail, and said some people would be prepared to tie themselves to the trees if necessary to prevent the project.
"Anybody who thinks this fight is over is wrong," said event participant Maureen Jais-Mick, co-chair of the group Rethinking the Purple Line that opposes light rail on the trail.
