Since the fall of 2010, Railroad Park has given Birmingham, Alabama, 19 acres of green along the tracks. Designed by architect Tom Leader, this intentionally laid-out green space acts as a recreation center for the city, hosting music venues, charity walks, movie nights and other city events. An amphitheater here seats 4,000 people, and the park’s water features—fountains and streams—are sustained by a special irrigation system that keeps the grounds green.
The park also supports wildlife: the number of observed bird species in Birmingham rose 250% after the park’s construction. Follow the Rail Trail if you want to get close to the tracks and watch trains in action; the park’s topography was structured around the eleven rail-lines that intersect at this site. Railroad Park is centered around the railroad tracks that helped industrialize the city and offers clear views of Sloss Furnaces.
It sits directly south of the Norfolk Southern and CSX rail lines through downtown and stretches from 14th Street to 18th Street along First Avenue South. Notice the eleven rail lines that shaped this park's layout, still running north toward Sloss Furnaces.