Edmonton Trail

Edmonton Trail

Edmonton Trail starts at the Reconciliation Bridge and 5th Avenue Flyover
Maintained by	City of Calgary
Length	5.4 km (3.4 mi)
Location	Calgary
South end	Reconciliation Bridge
Major junctions	Memorial Drive 16 Avenue NE (Hwy 1)
North end	McKnight Boulevard

Edmonton Trail is a major north-south arterial road in the north-east quadrant of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The road connects Downtown Calgary from Reconciliation Bridge (formerly called the Langevin Bridge) and the 5th Avenue Flyover at Memorial Drive with north-central Calgary. Between Memorial Drive and 16 Avenue NE (and to a lesser degree up to 24 Avenue NE), Edmonton Trail is lined with restaurants and retail businesses.

The road is the remnant of the southern terminus of the Calgary and Edmonton Trail, a land transport route between the fur trading posts of Fort Edmonton and Fort Calgary, used as far back as the early 1800. The more modern trail was blazed by John Alexander McDougall in 1873 as far as Morley and extended to Calgary two years later. The northern terminus, called Calgary Trail, is a major arterial in south Edmonton.

The street lies in the heart of the Italian community of Calgary, being the location of the first Italian lodge and Italian school of Calgary in the 1920s. Many Italian restaurants and stores still line the street.

The southern terminus is divided from the Bow River and Memorial Drive, with a southbound on-way road along the 4 Street NE alignment, and a northbound one-way road along the 5 Street NE alignment (the northbound section is signed as Edmonton Trail). The spurs re-unite at 3 Avenue NE, and continue as a two way road northwards between the communities of Bridgeland and Crescent Heights. It then crosses 16 Avenue NE (Highway 1 / Trans-Canada Highway), continues between the communities of Winston Heights and Tuxedo Park. North of the 32 Avenue NE, it passes through a light industrial district, then ends at McKnight Boulevard. It is continued for a short stretch to the north by 4 Street NE into the community of Thorncliffe.