How the Elizabeth River Trail has beckoned cyclists, runners, brewery goers, otter spotters and more while helping to transform the Norfolk waterfront experience
By Janine Latus
Community leader Peter Oberle used to run along the abandoned rail spur from West Ghent to the YMCA on Bute in Norfolk. The former city planner and public works employee was in on early discussions between West Ghent and Norfolk Southern to convert the rail company’s abandoned Atlantic City spur into a trail from West Ghent to the former dump site that is now Plum Point Park.
In the 30 years since, that trail has blossomed into the 10.5-mile (so far) Elizabeth River Trail, looping along the river and through neighborhoods from Norfolk State University all the way to Lochhaven, passing through Harbor Park and Freemason, the Chelsea district and Old Dominion University.
Breweries have sprouted along it. A distillery and a wine garden with a vegan menu. A putt putt golf course. A doggy daycare, because what’s more perfect than a long trail when you’re walking dogs?
Shipyard workers use it for the trek from their official parking lot to their jobs. Military personnel do PT on the trail and race through its obstacle course. People who don’t own cars can safely saunter, scooter or bike from underserved neighborhoods to good jobs, including in the city’s latest development, the Railyard at Lambert’s Point.
People take an estimated 624,000 trips along the route every year, according to executive director Kindra Greene, commuting to their jobs at the hospital and ODU and NSU, training for road races, scootering to a brewery, or jogging alongside kids on balance bikes on their way to a trailside playground.
Along the way they pass otter sighting sites at Nauticus and Plum Point Park, Little Free Libraries, a monarch butterfly waystation, a pollinator garden and countless shore birds, all while enjoying some of Norfolk’s most sweeping views of the Elizabeth River.
There’s even a segment in the Jeff Robertson Park with solar stones embedded in the pavement that light up at night in swirling homages to unfurling ferns.
The trail has helped turn formerly deteriorating sections of the waterfront into prime real estate.
Tim Faulkner, president and chief executive officer of The Breeden Company, said having the ERT right outside the 258-unit Lofts at Front Street luxury apartment complex played a role in his company’s decision to build there.
“When we tour prospects, it’s an amenity we point out,” he says, “along with the fitness facility, the pool and the dock at the end of the property.”
The Lofts even provides bikes that residents can check out, so that they can ride the trail straight to Downtown in one direction, Chelsea in the other.
Indeed, real estate listings include proximity to the trail as a major draw, which was part of the impetus to pour corporate and public money and thousands of hours a year of volunteer labor into building and maintaining the official trail, an effort that began about a decade ago when the Greater Norfolk Corporation gathered business and community leaders to discuss what the city could do to attract and retain talent.
The group rallied around the Elizabeth River Trail, recognizing that water is one of the defining features of the region. The ERT Foundation’s two employees and more than 900 volunteers a year have hung 500 wayfinding signs, installed bike repair stations, built kayak launches, hauled in picnic tables and erected play structures.
Jimmy Entas—”Citizen Jimmy” to folks at the ERT Foundation—rides along the trail with a jagged-toothed Root Slayer bungee corded to his bike. The retired attorney uses it to chop away the ever-invasive Bermuda grass creeping through the plantings under some of the trail’s nautical-themed public art.
From the first day Entas volunteered he began doing hard, physical labor, schlepping wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of sand to build up the shoreline. He learned about the Root Slayer from Norfolk Master Gardeners who volunteered alongside him and donated hundreds of native species to plant along the trail.
“It’s amazing how many people use the trail and how much Kindra and Morgan are doing on such a limited budget,” Entas says, referencing Foundation Executive Director Greene and Assistant Director Morgan Willett. “It’s crucial to the city’s profile. The first thing you see if you’re thinking about moving here is the Elizabeth River and then the trail. We have fantastic views along the waterfront, and now things that have been here for hundreds of years have been transformed into a recreational facility.”
The Elizabeth River Trail has been a true community effort. Smartmouth Brewery hosts weekly Tour de ORF bike rides that begin and end at the brewery after long segments on the trail. The Norfolk Master Gardeners run botanical tours.
An Eagle Scout built the monarch garden. Another ripped out all the invasive weeds out of a section near Chelsea, which was then seeded with a thousand native wildflowers.
Tidewater Technical and Centura colleges are building four more trailhead shelters. Elizabeth River Crossings has a ‘green team’ that maintains the native pines near the obstacle course.
Dogtown, a boarding and daycare facility, uses the trail daily to walk its charges, but owner Sam Woomer also uses it to exercise his own dogs and to train for marathons. He founded Bogey’s, a putt putt course and party venue, right on the trail.
“We decided to open Bogey’s on the trail for the same reason we did Dogtown, walkability and visibility,” Woomer says. “It’s a great place to start a business.”
Benchtop Brewing in Chelsea, which backs up to the trail, brews an annual release of Wishing Tree Lager, with a portion of the proceeds going into the trail’s coffers, says general manager Lauren Reynolds. They open their doors as a meeting space for cleanup crews and Scout troops working on trail projects. A lot of running groups use Benchtop as their starting and ending points for runs, promising themselves a cold beer as a reward for their effort.
“Our proximity to the trail helps us create an environment that welcomes people in, and then by brewing the lager we try to send the support back,” Reynolds says. “One of the awesome things that works for us on busy Saturdays and in nice weather, when there are so many people out and about, is them having the ability to just grab a Lime scooter and be here in five minutes, using the trail.”
The trail also brings big money into the city. According to the ERT economic impact report, the trail brings in more than $18 million to Norfolk businesses, distributed among restaurants, overnight accommodations, and food and drink stores. Its ripple effect brings in more than $677,000 in local tax revenue.
The city has now designated the trail as the spine of the Norfolk Innovation Corridor, which provides tax incentives to start creative new businesses along the trail.
Plans are in the works to extend the trail all the way to the Virginia Beach line, says Oberle, who became a founding board member to the foundation. The master planning subcommittee is looking at places where the trail can be built close to the Elizabeth River, “but then we need to talk to the neighborhoods it’ll go through and find out their reactions and desires.”
Maybe they want a playground or public art. Planners are also looking toward the naval base, to see if they can create a route that allows military personnel easy access to the rest of the city.
As for the foundation, Executive Director Greene says the dream now is to buy a building right on the trail—the foundation is currently housed in the World Trade Center—and rent out space to related businesses like bike and kayak rentals, and maybe an ice cream shop. Then the foundation could host workshops, classes and events, and thus become more sustainable.
Its impact is being noticed. The Elizabeth River Trail Foundation has been named Hampton Roads Chamber’s 2024 Small Business Nonprofit of the Year, and Del. Phil Hernandez’s office has notified them that a Commending Resolution has been passed by the Virginia House of Delegates, recognizing the foundation’s accomplishments in the community.
Aside from its beauty, the trail opens opportunities to connect neighborhoods.
“Everyone has a right to safe access to green space,” says Greene, “and trails can transform communities.”
So this weekend, tie on your tennies and wander the trail. Enjoy the history, the racoons and possums, and maybe a turtle laying eggs. Wander the riverfront. Stroll into a shop. You never know what you’ll see!
Janine Latus
Janine Latus is a freelance writer who spent a lovely decade in Coastal Virginia and now lives in Chapel Hill, NC. It’s her delight and job to talk to interesting people about fascinating things and then play with words. She is the author of The New York Times bestseller If I Am Missing or Dead: A Sister’s Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation.
