FreeWalkers Marathon -- Philadelphia (Fairmount Park)

Our most diverse and scenic walk of the year. A FreeWalkers favorite!

Start: Porch at 30th St Station

Finish: Chestnut Hill West Station

Distance: 13-26mi

Where to find us: Outside south side of station

Optional endpoints:- East Falls Station, Highland Station and numerous other mass transit options

Terrain: paved, gravel, grass

Transit: Amtrak, Megabus, NJTransit AC and NJTransit/Septa connections to 30th Street Station

Return: SEPTA train

Parking: Many nearby garages and lots. Try 3101 Market St or Cira South Garage

Difficulty: Average / Advanced

Category: nature, history, urban, scenic

Coordinator: Charles Updike, 916-225-0569

Walk the entire breadth of the city through the largest landscaped city park in the world, Fairmount Park, with the autumn colors at their peak along the Schuylkill River Trail and Forbidden Drive along the Wissahickon Creek.

In the early 19th century, the Wissahickon was a hub for small industry, due to its steady water flow for powering mills. When industry moved downtown, the area was preserved to protect the water supply for the region, producing an environment that became world renowned for its beauty and inspired the works of Walt Whitman, John Greenleaf Whittier, Edgar Allen Poe, Christopher Morley, and Currier and Ives. Forbidden Drive is so named for its prohibition of all motor vehicles. The Wissahickon Valley has a stillness untouched by time, strange for one of the world's larger cities, and is surely Philadelphia's best kept secret, offering as appealing a walking route as is available for a hundred miles around.

"The Wissahickon is of so remarkable a loveliness that, were it flowing in England, it would be the theme of every bard." -- Poe

"Some of my happiest hours have been spent there, some of my freest hours." -- Whitman

Our journey begins at 30th Street Station, with convenient connections to Septa, NJ Transit, Amtrak and Megabus. The walk ends in the tony main-street neighborhood of Chestnut Hill, where we shall meet for eats and libations, with two train stations available to carry us back to 30th Street. Easy gravel and paved terrain, with very few road crossings after one leaves Center City. Two snack bars with nearby bathrooms assist along the way.

The half-marathon route is a shortest-distance trek along the Schuylkill and Wissahickon. The full route provides a broad and meandering treatment of all of the many highlights of sprawling Fairmount Park, along with visits to the places of debate and worship of our founding fathers, the site of the 1876 Centennial Exposition, the world's tallest masonry building, dozens of works of public art, and the nation's most pioneering and pedestrian-friendly cemetery, replete with graves of countless war heroes, inventors, tycoons and even local icons like Harry Kalas and Rocky's Adrian Balboa.

• University of Pennsylvania
• Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk
• Rittenhouse Square
• Washington Square
• Independence Hall
• Carpenters Hall
• Spruce Street Harbor Park
• Penns Landing
• Christ Church
• City Hall
• Logan Circle
• Ben Franklin Parkway
• Art Museum steps
• Fairmount Waterworks
• Boathouse Row
• Kelly Drive
• Memorial Hall
• Japanese House and Garden
• Belmont Plateau
• Strawberry Mansion Bridge
• Laurel Hill Cemetery
• Falls Bridge
• Wissahickon Creek
• Battle of Germantown
• Forbidden Drive
• Valley Green Inn
• Magarge Dam
• Covered bridge
• Chestnut Hill

• Fairmount Waterworks
• Boathouse Row
• Kelly Drive
• Falls Bridge
• Wissahickon Creek
• Battle of Germantown
• Forbidden Drive
• Valley Green Inn
• Magarge Dam
• Covered bridge
• Chestnut Hill

Partners:

The East Coast Greenway Alliance is a non-profit organization developing a public multi-use 3,000 mile trail from Canada to Key West through New Jersey and New York. Donations and memberships help make this dream trail a reality.

Circuit Trails is 800 miles of interconnected trails in Greater Philadelphia in the making, already one of America's largest trail networks. Once connected, the Circuit Trails will be one of the nation's premier urban trail networks and it will provide multiple benefits to neighborhoods, communities and the region as a whole.

More about FreeWalkers:

Our calendar of walks and hikes | About FreeWalkers | Walker stories | Walking tips

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