compacted fly ash from the PEPCO plant in Alexandria. The first section was 6 feet wide and cost only $27,000 to build due to the work of numerous volunteers who, after NPS bladed the base, spent every weekend for four months spreading gravel. Because it only went to Alexandria, it was referred to as the Alexandria Bike Trail, not taking on the name Mount Vernon Trail until the second section was completed. The second section was 8 feet wide, cost $135,000 to build and received help from the U.S. Army Engineer Center at Ft. Belvoir which helped to build the timber bridges and boardwalks. Since the Mount Vernon Trail opened it has been expanded, widened, connected to and improved many times. In 1976, the City of Alexandria acquired a deed from Norfolk Southern to build a section of the trail from Pendleton Street to E. Abingdon Drive. This extension moved the on-road portion through Alexandria from Pitt Street to Union Street. In 1978, the Park Service built a new, $305,000, 1.8 mile paved section of trail on the west side of the parkway from Alexandria Avenue to Fort Hunt Road, a controversial project that was held up by legal action over safety and environmental concerns by neighbors. Previously the trail in that area had been on-road. In 1978, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority built a connection from the trail to Washington National Airport's bicycle parking. In 1979, the original section between Alexandria and Memorial Bridge was paved and in 1980 the section south of Fort Hunt and the one between Alexandria and Alexandria Avenue was paved. In 1980, as part of the construction of seven bridges across Four Mile Run, including bridges for Potomac Yard railroads, Route 1 and the George Washington Parkway, the Army Corps of Engineers built an extension of the Four Mile Run Trail that connected the trail to the Mount Vernon Trail. In 1982, Alexandria built a small section of trail in the area under and near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. In 1982-83, a new trail route was built around the east side of the Potomac River Generating Station, on a cantilevered section between the river and the power plant, with costs paid for by the power utility because they were facing legal action for illegally storing coal on federal land. On December 7, 1988, the Park Service expanded the trail north from Arlington Memorial Bridge