Railroad Park Scenery: 5 stars Trail Condition: 5 stars Children: 5 stars Difficulty: 1 star Solitude: N/A GPS Trailhead Coordinates: N33° 30.611'' W86° 48.506'' Distance & Configuration: 1-mile loop Hiking Time: 30 minutes Highlights: Open, urban hub for exercise and play; diverse and beautiful; mostly native landscaping; ponds and flowing creeks; 360-degree views of the skyline; city history exhibit; the motion, sound, and visual variety provided by passing trains Elevation: Between 600'' and 615'' Access: Daily, 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Maps: Available at the website below Facilities: Restrooms, concession stand, bike racks, picnic table, benches, playgrounds, exercise area, skateboard bowls, amphitheater Wheelchair Access: Yes Comments: Pets welcome but must be under control and on a leash at all times, and you need to clean up after them. Bikers, skaters, and skateboarders are allowed but are asked to use the central paved corridor.
Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the park. Contact: 205-521-9933, railroadpark.org Overview Railroad Park is ground zero for the new Birmingham, a recycled and resurgent city, a Birmingham of shared space. It''s a center of activity where a diverse citizenry meets to relax or recreate. The park comprises four city blocks, 19 acres, with ponds and streams and native trees, flowers, and grasses. There are wide open meadows and undulating hills. In the fall, hillsides of muhly grass turn a blazing pink, and in the summer, a profusion of flowers blooms. There are playgrounds and exercise equipment, dining on the plaza, and a grassy amphitheater for concerts.
Elevated walkways allow you to survey the city center in every direction: the downtown skyline; trains rolling through the center of town; the city''s new ballpark, Regions Field; the towers of Children''s Hospital; the University of Alabama at Birmingham''s medical complex and college campus; and Vulcan, atop Red Mountain. Route Details When the 21st century dawned, the four blocks that now make up Railroad Park were a forlorn, weed-choked lot that had once been a railroad freight yard. To the north, the office-oriented downtown was beginning to add more restaurants and living spaces. To the south, the medical and university district was seeing constant construction of new buildings and housing. The gathering momentum gave energy to an idea that had been dreamed about for decades: Take that neglected no man''s land south of the downtown rail corridor and turn it into a ribbon of green running through the heart of the city. Create a place to play, to wander, to gather; a place for outdoor concerts and festivals; a place to exercise or relax. Most older major cities grew up along rivers, and revitalization efforts have tended to center along their waterfronts, but Birmingham''s river was the railroads. So we turned to the tracks.
The construction of the park was a partnership of many players, public and private. The nonprofit Railroad Park Foundation and the city of Birmingham led the way, with support from Jefferson County, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, and a multitude of other donors. The park cost $23 million to build and opened in 2010 to immediate success, followed by a long list of awards and recognitions. It spurred the construction of Regions Field across First Avenue South from the park. It has also inspired residential projects in the area and the development of greenways and trails spreading out from the park in every direction. Start your walk at the 17th Street Plaza, north of the intersection of 17th Street South and First Avenue South. This plaza serves as the main hub of the park, where you can find the park headquarters, restrooms, and a concession area. From the plaza, proceed east, uphill on the asphalt walkway that ascends the southern edge of the big grassy bowl.
You''re walking parallel to First Avenue South. As you climb this hill, it''s a good moment to observe how the park''s designers reshaped the landscape for both aesthetic and functional purposes. Before the park, this was a flat plain, the lowest point in the city. It was bounded in the north by a tall, unsightly wall rising to the railroad corridor. During the construction process, the land was reconfigured to form this amphitheater to host concerts and movies. They dug out the ponds and piled up earth to create a hillside along the northern edge of the park. That landscaped hillside now hides the viaduct wall, and its upper ridge carries an elevated walkway from which you can view the city, the park, and the rolling rail corridor. As you reach the top of the amphitheater knoll, a brick staircase descends to the corner of 18th Street South and First Avenue South.
Along this staircase is a timeline display of the city''s history. Take a detour to explore it, but be careful not to get so wrapped up in the story that you stumble down the steps. Continuing on the elevated walk, cross a bridge above the park''s central paved corridor, an extension of Powell Avenue through the park. Proceeding to the far northeast corner of the park, you arrive at a viewing platform situated at the park''s highest point. This is the best spot to take in the view of the entire park and the surrounding city. From this vantage point, you can connect the origins of the city with its present. The rail corridor before you was the reason the city grew in the spot that it did. From this juncture, train routes coming in from the north, south, east, and west converge.
The earliest iron furnaces in the city--Sloss Furnaces, still visible to the east, and the Alice Furnace, which was a few blocks west of the park''s western end--were built on this corridor. Locally mined iron ore, coal, and limestone flowed into those furnaces from the surrounding countryside by rail. Directly across 18th Street South is a large brick building, which until recently was a coal-fired steam plant that once generated electricity for an extensive streetcar system centered here. It also provided steam heat for the city''s progression of rising office buildings clustered along 20th Street South to the north of the rail corridor. Looking back to the park, you can pick out the subtle ways designers used native elements in creating the landscape: brick made from our red clay soils, limestone collected in metal cages to form much of the bench seating. Steel bridges and structures suggest our steel industry. The buildings on the plaza call to mind railroad boxcars. The park''s hillsides, planted with native grasses, flowers, and trees, slope down to the water features that collect storm water and recirculate it through the park.
A wetland marsh of cattails and aquatic grasses and flowers at the eastern end of the park serves as a biofiltration system. The collected water is supplemented with water drawn from onsite wells and is used to irrigate the park. The park''s four square blocks have been sculpted into a microcosm of the region, with its valleys, ridges, creeks, and wetlands. Proceeding to the west, you stay at the level of the trains, which, as they clank and grind through town, create an ever-changing display of movement, sight, and sound. You cross above a rain curtain that drops into a pond. In the pond, you might spot carp released to control vegetation, along with little swarms of goldfish that seem to have been an unsanctioned addition. The trail dips down off the ridge, passing close to a children''s playground, then rises again to the northwest corner of the park. An observation platform here provides a view of Regions Field, home of the Birmingham Barons, the city''s longtime minor league baseball team.
The Barons moved from their original home at Rickwood Field to a suburban park in Hoover in 1988, but they returned to the central city 25 years later. Named the nation''s best new ballpark of 2013, Regions Field drew huge crowds in its inaugural season. If you haven''t been to a game, you''re missing out. Get down there. Descend the stairs and continue parallel to 14th Street South, crossing the Powell Avenue corridor, then passing an area devoted to exercise equipment. As you reach the southwest corner of the park and start heading back toward the entry plaza, you have a choice of three distinct corridors: a paved path for runners and walkers, a gravel promenade for ambling and pausing to enjoy the scenery, and a streetside brick sidewalk. The paved track runs along a curving creek bed whose banks are formed by granite street curbs salvaged during the park''s excavation. The gravel promenade is punctuated by flower beds and passes through two smaller entrance plazas.
At the 15th Street South plaza, you can pause to watch skateboarders dipping, swooping, and speeding along the contours of three skate bowls. The 16th Street South plaza centers on a small grove of river birch trees, planted in a dugout bowl surfaced with cobblestones unearthed during the park''s construction. As you proceed back toward the entrance plaza, you''ll also note the cobblestones used to line the banks of a smaller pond adjacent to the plaza. If you''re determined to keep walking, you can recirculate along the gravel path that winds along the course of the creek and mix and match other paths. However, one of the real pleasures of the park is sitting on a bench or on the grass and watching the swirl of humanity. All ages and races share this space. No place where people gather is completely immune to conflict and tension, but Railroad Park is remarkable for its daily production of positive energy and interaction among its diverse clientele. It''s a civic space that Birmingham, in particular, has long needed.
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