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10

Advanced Level –?מסילת הרכבת?

The Train Track Park

In today’s Jerusalem one can be greatly delayed because of problems
with transportation, buses that are late and endless traffic jams.
But it wasn’t always like that. There was a time in Jerusalem when the
transportation was the most advanced in the area: At the end of the
19th century.
The Ottomans chose to build the first train track in the Middle East
between Jerusalem and the coastal area of Palestine.
Throughout the years, neighborhoods were built at the sides of the
track, and every neighborhood has a different personality. Expensive
neighborhoods like Bakaa and less expensive ones like the
Katamonim were built. Beit Safafa, the Arab neighborhood, was built
as well. When (they) realized that there is no need for this train, the
track was abandoned and became a place (full) of garbage and filth, to
whom all neighborhoods turn their back.
In recent years the municipality decided to create an upheaval for the
area: Turning the track into an attractive park. A lane for pedestrians
and bicycles was paved, (they) planted flowers, built playground and
sports facilities on the sides of the road, and the dirty and abandoned
place became one of the most beautiful and special sites of the city.
Today, the place that once separated the different neighborhoods
turned into an area that brings them together. One can walk along the
track and drink coffee at the station compound, use the sports facilities
in the Katamonim neighborhood, drink fresh orange juice at Beit
Safafa and watch a game of soccer or basketball at Malcha.
If you are ambitious, you can get up at 5 A.M. and join hundreds of
people, from young to old, who are walking and running along the
lanes at the side of the track, during all seasons of the year.

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