East Lake Sammamish Trail

The East Lake Sammamish Trail is eleven miles of rail trail in King County, tracing the shore of Lake Sammamish between Marymoor Park in Redmond, Sammamish, and Gilman Boulevard in Issaquah [1]. The rail corridor beneath it dates to 1889, when it was laid as part of a line serving the coal mines at Issaquah [2]. Burlington Northern Santa Fe was the last railroad to operate the corridor, and in 1997 the company chose to abandon it, selling the land to the Cascade Land Conservancy and King County [2]. The county applied to railbank the corridor, and the U.S. Surface Transportation Board approved that request in 1998 [2]. The conservancy turned its interest over to the county that same year [2]. Homeowners whose property bordered the old right-of-way resisted the trail, and gave way only after a federal lawsuit went against them [1]. The interim trail, surfaced in packed gravel, opened on 21 March 2006 [1]. Paving followed in stages, Redmond and Issaquah first, then three separate stretches in Sammamish [1]. A bridge over Bear Creek and beneath Washington State Route 520, linking the trail's north end to the Redmond Central Connector, opened in 2025 [1].