Bing Daily Wallpaper (zh-CN): Aerial view of the Virginia Creeper Trail, Damascus, Virginia, USA · July 31, 2026
Image: Bing Daily Wallpaper · Aerial view of the Virginia Creeper Trail, Damascus, Virginia, USA (© Eifel Kreutz/Getty Images) · Bing official original image (Ultra HD). Bing's daily images are licensed only for use as desktop wallpapers; this article references them via link.
Open up Bing's homepage today and you'll find an overhead shot. A pale line threads through mountain woodland—not wide, curving gently into the depths of the trees, as if someone lightly scored a mark across green velvet. Bing titled this image "Footprints Through Time."
That's not an exaggeration at all. Because that line, over a hundred years ago, was a set of railroad tracks.
The photo shows the Virginia Creeper Trail, located near the small town of Damascus in southwestern Virginia, USA. The trail stretches 34.3 miles—about 55 kilometers—with one end nestled in the Appalachian Mountains.
A Train So Slow People Named It After a Vine
According to Bing, this trail follows an old railroad line that once hauled timber and iron ore through the mountains.
The name is the interesting part. "Virginia creeper" is actually a plant—Parthenocissus quinquefolia, or five-leaved ivy—that grew wild along both sides of the tracks. But locals gave the name to the train itself. Have you ever watched something struggle painfully uphill? When steam locomotives loaded with red spruce and ore crawled up the grade, they were so slow you felt anxious on their behalf. According to Bing, that's where the name came from. A train, described by the speed of a vine.
For over a hundred years, it hauled timber, ore, and people. Then the numbers stopped adding up: after the Great Depression, the line never turned a profit again. On March 31, 1977, the last train rolled down the mountain, and the tracks were pulled up.
By rights, the story should end there. But railroad beds have one great virtue—they're naturally gentle. To let trains climb, engineers kept the grades minimal; once the rails were removed, what remained was a path perfectly suited to legs. So it became a trail, one of America's most beloved rail-trails, bringing over $60 million a year to the four surrounding counties and supporting nearly six hundred full-time jobs.
A Hurricane, and a Perfectly Chosen Date
In September 2024, the remnants of Hurricane Helene slammed into these mountains. Seventeen miles of trail between Damascus and Whitetop Mountain were destroyed; 30 of 31 historic trestles were damaged or swept away. The other half—from the starting point of Abingdon to Damascus—suffered only minor damage and reopened within days.
The repair effort is substantial: the Forest Service awarded a $240 million contract to Kiewit Corporation, with construction beginning in December 2025 to rebuild the entire destroyed section and restore every damaged trestle.
Then came the news from two weeks ago. On July 16, the U.S. Forest Service announced the date for a full reopening: March 31, 2027.
Why not open as soon as repairs are finished? Because the newly filled roadbed needs to settle through a winter—letting the soil compact, letting the drainage systems truly prove themselves before welcoming spring's throngs of cyclists.
And that date deserves a second look. March 31, 1977: the last train departed. March 31, 2027: the entire trail reopens. Same month, same day—exactly fifty years.
Damascus has only about eight hundred residents, and locals call the trail the town's "lifeline." For them, that date is probably more than just a date.
The day a railroad ceased running became the day a path begins again. That pale line in today's photo looks quiet, but it has already lived two lives in these mountains.
Sources: U.S. Forest Service announcement of July 16, 2026; Cardinal News; WVTF; Virginia Creeper Trail Conservancy; U.S. Forest Service George Washington and Jefferson National Forests page.