Riverwalk expansion to focus on Chattanooga's industrial history

As the Tennessee Riverwalk twists along through swamps and into the city, a bike ride down the trail can feel like a visual history lesson in Chattanooga's evolution.

A planned extension of the Riverwalk will add a crucial chapter to that story: The factory.

The new 3 1/2-mile Tennessee Riverwalk extension plans to take bikers and joggers past the woods and streams into Chattanooga's industrial heritage, tracing a route along active and abandoned manufacturing sites lining the Tennessee River as it bends around Lookout Mountain.

The new trail will allow its users to venture behind large scrapyards, old foundry sites and still-working businesses that have monopolized the area for decades. At one point, the trail will pass under a part of the mammoth crane that Alstom uses to load its power-plant turbines onto barges, giving passers-by a rare peak at the manufacturing process.

"It's not like the trail goes through a green, open field," said Rick Wood, director of the Chattanooga branch of the Trust for Public Land.

The trust has been helping acquire the property and easements needed to extend the Riverwalk.

Read More. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)