PARKS & OUTDOORS
The Legacy Trail
Sarasota County · Gulf Coast
An 18.5-mile paved rail trail from downtown Sarasota to the Venice train depot, on the old Seaboard Air Line corridor.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
The Seaboard Air Line Railroad built this line from 1903 and pushed it south to Venice by 1911. Sarasota County bought the corridor and opened the first ten miles as trail in 2008. The northern extension into downtown Sarasota was finished in stages through 2021 and 2022, with the last piece from Bahia Vista Street to Fruitville Road opening on March 3, 2022, and the North Port Connector, another five and a half miles, opened that September. The main trail now runs 18.5 miles in asphalt. It crosses Phillippi Creek and Dona Bay on the original railroad trestles, which is the finest stretch of the ride, and passes through Oscar Scherer State Park. Trailheads at Payne Park, Pompano, Sarasota Springs, Ashton, Culverhouse Nature Park, Osprey Junction, Laurel, Nokomis Community Park, Patriots Park and the historic Venice train depot let riders start anywhere along it, and bicycles can be rented at several of them
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