Gwynns Falls

Standing atop a cliff in Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park, Chris Rogers was awed by the magnificent view of the lush, green stream valley below. He completely forgot the hustle and bustle of city life -- only the occasional sound of a nearby siren reminded him that he was in an urban area instead of a mountain wilderness.The oasis of peace in the heart of Baltimore inspired the Recreation and Parks intern to energize a group of people into implementing the Gwynns Falls Trail project.That was eight years ago.Saturday, Phase I of the 14-mile trail officially opens and you're invited to join the celebration.

The man was up to his neck in the icy waters of the Gwynns Falls.Firefighters on shore extended a metal pole and tossed out flotation devices -- but they would be of no use to a man suffering from hypothermia who couldn't use his arms. So a rescue worker in a red immersion suit glided a raft over the ice and pulled the man ashore.Yesterday's staged but realistic rescue scene was part of a drill attended by about 40 Fire Department employees from six stations in southwest Baltimore County, videotaped so other fire employees can learn water rescue techniques.

For the past two weeks, from early morning until afternoon, city teen-agers have been battling sawdust and enduring splinters for the chance to build something they can call their own and to unite two communities.They are part of a program sponsored by the city, state and several area nonprofit groups to bring together 12 youths, ages 14 to 17, to construct a 500-foot boardwalk and three observation decks to connect to the future Gwynns Falls Trail. Trail construction is to begin next year.

Ted Niederman was eager to try the newly dedicated Gwynns Falls Trail across western Baltimore yesterday, but one thing nearly stopped him. "I was afraid the place would be so crowded I wouldn't want to be here," said Niederman, a 67-year-old architect who lives in Green Spring Valley in Baltimore County and, at 1 p.m., was the first cyclist in 45 minutes to pass through Middle Branch Park. Bikers and walkers who tested the new parts of the 14-mile trail, which was dedicated Saturday as its last leg opened, enjoyed relative serenity yesterday.

A new spring is in store for Gwynns Falls and Leakin parks, the West Baltimore open spaces whose leafy hillsides, daredevil sledding runs and sunny wildflower meadows now lie wrapped in neglect, disuse and spectacular beauty.Beginning early next year, a 4.5-mile-long asphalt trail for in-line skating, walking, bicycling and sightseeing will be blazed through the parks, the first new public access to them since Tropical Storm Agnes devastated the area25 years ago.At 2,000 acres, the sprawling Gwynns Falls Valley, which twists through the populous Rosemont, Edmondson Village and Wilkens Avenue-Washington Boulevard corridors before joining the harbor, might as well be in a remote outback of the Appalachian Trail.

In a couple more months, this flat part of the park will be transformed into a baseball-basketball -picnic area.The Yellow Cab that carried me across Gwynns Falls Parkway encountered an ominous orange detour sign at the entrance to the Windsor Hills neighborhood on the city's western edge. For the next 10 minutes we twisted and turned along gloriously leafy streets.As the meter ominously clicked into the double-dollar digits, we emerged on West Forest Park Avenue and shot down the hill to Franklintown Road, past local landmarks such the Mill Race Tavern.

A twisting path, marked by a plastic Day-Glo fence, is being cut through the maples and ash trees of the Gwynns Falls Valley on the west side of the city.It took four years of planning to conceive the Gwynns Falls Trail, but only four weeks to blaze its route into visibility.On a spring morning heavy with the scent of honeysuckle, the basic outlines of the 4.5-mile path are clear -- thanks to the construction fence that marks its course through an otherwise thick tangle of growth along the upper Gwynns Falls Valley.

A LITTLE before 9:30 yesterday morning, the bad but expected news came to those who waited for it on the West Baltimore Street Bridge, high above the gnarly river gorge where summer had ended forever for the 17-year-old named Joey Cox. Immediately, the boy's brother and father, who had been waiting there with other kin, scrambled to a car, a white Oldsmobile Alero parked just beyond the police line. Glen Cox Sr. had spent most of Tuesday night searching for his son, "my baby boy," and when neither he nor the Baltimore City Fire Department could find him, he went to his rowhouse on McHenry Street in Southwest Baltimore, and sat on the front steps and waited for Joey to come home.

The Carrollton Viaduct is a National Historic Landmark located on the Gwynns Falls near Carroll Park in Baltimore City. Built in 1928 and 1929, and standing 312 feet long and 60 feet high, it's the oldest railroad bridge still in use.

Police identified yesterday a Northwest Baltimore man found fatally shot in a car on a West Baltimore street last month and also have identified a man whose decomposed body was found by geologists working in Gwynns Falls Park nearly two weeks ago. Lt. Richard Fahlteich of the homicide squad said David Johnson, 40, of the 5100 block of Queensberry Ave. in Pimlico, was found shot to death in his car July 1 in the 2300 block of Braddish Ave. No arrest had...