Trail along Schuylkill gains national historic status

Park officials, historians and Revolutionary War re-enactors met on the east bank of the Schuylkill River Thursday to dedicate the trail there as a national historic site.

The Schuylkill River Trail is just one segment of the “Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route” or W3R.

Ursula Reed, vice president of W3R-PA, an organization that pushed for the trail’s new designation, said it could be significant for the area.

“The W3R national historic trail will bring a lot of traffic in terms of heritage tours,” she said. “We’re going to be working closely with organizations like the greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation and hopefully … it will be a boost to the economy.

In 1781, American and French troops used the W3R to march from Rhode Island to Yorktown, Virginia, where the British surrendered.

It took an act of Congress to name the trail a national historic site.