A bike ride down Detroit's Dequindre Cut, an old rail road bed turned into a greenway leading to the River Walk. Detroit's River Walk has been named the finest in the nation!
Hard to tell but I think the red/brown building at the very beginning of the Dequindre Cut is the DYNO Detroit rock climbing facility development that just recently opened (April 1st according to their website).
One of the most essential and underrated bits of infrastructure for Detroit’s revival. The completed greenway will be one-of-a-kind in this part of the world.
The Dequindre Cut is the perfect symbol of where Detroit is today. The trench used to take the Grand Trunk Western Railroad below grade was built in the late 20's. Rail traffic was so heavy serving the various industries in the area that surface streets would be blocked for hours by trains switching cars in and out of sidings. With the3 city threatening massive fines every time a street was blocked, the Grand Trunk and other railroads agreed to complete about21 miles of below grade projects, with the surface streets carried over the cut on the bridges we still see and use today. The railroad had the misfortune of completing all this work just before the Crash of 1929. It struggled on through the Great Depression, only saved by the fact it had merged with the Canadian Nation Railway. The parent was a much larger entity and, being government owned, was able to float bonds to cover the losses. With the advent of war, the GTW boomed, with treains running 24 hours a day and revenues in 1943 four times higher than in 1928, its previous best year. It accomplished this by running the wheels off every locomotive, wearing out almost all of its freight cars, and having a deteriorated track and roadbed with many 5 mph slow orders. After the end of the war, the GTW spent most of its war profits on replacements, repairs, and upgrades. By 1960, the railroad was in much better shape and able to handle the postwar traffic and the potential industrial boom in Michigan. Just as it stood on the edge of being a profitable railroad, the bottom fell out again in the late 60's as foreign cars began take a larger and larger share of the US car market. By the late 70's the situation was dire, the tracks of the GTW in the Cut mostly serving abandoned factories. Trackage in the Cut was finally abandoned in 1983, the tracks remaining in place, and the railroad grade becoming overgrown in weeds and volunteer trees. For 20 years, the Cut was known as a dangerous place, mostly occupied by taggers, muggers, and those selling and using illegal pharmaceuticals. It was going to be used as freeway access for the original Detroit casino, but that fell through when the casino was built at another location. In a deal with funding as complicated as building another railroad, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy aquired the Cut for use as a bike patch and greenway in 2003. By then, it was decided that the graffiti all along the route, instead of being an eyesore as originally thought, transitioned into art, and all the art was protected during construction. The first 1.2 mile section was opened in 2009. The second half-mile was also financed with complicated funding in 2013. It took three years after constrruction crews ran into long abandoned sewer systems and access tunnels from the factories that used to line the route. It was finally finished in 2016. An eating, drinking, and entertainment venue called The Freight Yard was constructed using shipping containers. Revenue from this venue was to be used to help pay the operating expnses for the Cut. Just as it seemed everything had come together Covid and Governor Whitmer descended on Detroit. The Freight Yard officially closed on April 1, 2020 and produced no revenue for the year. Some sanity is being restored as I write this on April 7, 2020, and there's talk of a socially distanced beer garden this year. There's also talk of entertainment if they can meet the guidelines of the state. With Governor Whitmer in charge, one never knows. At least people are able to ride their bikes and walk in The Cut again.
