It’s sometimes easy to forget that Spokane lies at a major rail crossroads. At one point, the region had one of the highest concentrations of railroad track west of the Mississippi. Of course, the signs and symbols are all around us, hiding in plain sight.

Pre-Expo ’74, Riverfront Park was the site of a major rail depot. The Spokane River was almost completely obscured by tracks. Further east, where WSU Spokane now sits, a major crossing of the river led to a Spokane Inland Empire Railroad facility. Today, that building houses high-tech offices and McKinstry, but back then, it was a major base for passenger rail services across the Spokane region, out to Coeur d’Alene and the Palouse.

If you enjoy running or biking, you may have used the Fish Lake Trail, a former Union Pacific right-of-way leading into the Latah Valley.

And you can still find the remnants of Spokane’s venerable streetcar system, an expansive network of corridors radiating out from downtown to places like North Monroe, Northwest Boulevard, Garland, East Sprague, and Hillyard. Even where you can’t still see the tracks, if you enjoy these walkable urban districts, you’re enjoying part of our city made possible by the streetcars. And the system’s owner? Washington Water Power, the precursor to today’s Avista.

Indeed, it’s almost impossible to overstate how much rail has meant to the development of our region. And these examples barely begin to scratch the surface.

So why don’t we talk about this history more? Why don’t we own it, promote it, and expand on it? Why don’t we boldly capture this legacy and transform it into something new, something unseen? We don’t have to rebuild our streetcar system or string light rail to Coeur d’Alene to be more connected to our railroad past. Even small steps can make a big difference.

Let’s try repainting the railroad bridge at Division and Sprague, the center of our street grid and often one of visitors’ first impressions of Spokane, to create a more vibrant entry. Green paint looks better than rusted black, or we can tell a better story with a mural. Are there opportunities to partner with BNSF to create a better sense of entry?

Let’s explore new ways to liberate rail from the museum and allow people to experience it. Could we run a trolleybus along former streetcar routes, perhaps as a one-off event?

And let’s better tell the story of our urban districts, former suburbs which came about because they were strung together by excellent transit. As Spokane Transit embarks on a new expansion, and as the city looks to concentrate more growth in these areas, let’s look for new ways to showcase the districts’ history and heritage as friendly, vibrant neighborhoods.

Our railroad history should be a point of pride, and it’s visible all around us. Let’s reclaim it, transform it, and expand it as we look toward the future of our city and our region.

Anthony Gill is an economic development professional and the founder of Spokane Rising, an urbanist blog focused on ways to make our city a better place to live.