After the success of the initial stretch of the Burke-Gilman Trail along Lake Washington, walkers, joggers, and bikers pressed for a western extension. Burlington Northern had just sold property that included several vacated stretches of rail, and the city was planning to buy these. While the Montana-based purchasers said they would not block the trail, not everyone was convinced.

Members of the Lake Union and Ship Canal Trail Coalition gathered outside the 999 Third Avenue offices of Burlington Northern to protest the sale. Here, Joe Kochanowski stands on the Seattle sidewalk straddling his homemade recumbent bicycle, some 45 floors below the BN corporate offices. Kochanowski had become known for these bicycles, which he built individually for each buyer.

Written on verso: Joe Kochanowski who commutes on his home made bicycle to and from his job at a sign shop. Joe said he moved to Seattle because he heard it was a bicycle town, that is why he showed up at demonstration to preserve the Burke Gilman trail outside the offices of Burlington Northern RR in downtown Seattle.

Caption information source: “Burke-Gilman Trail right of way sale is off track, protesters say”, by Scott Maier, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 4, 1988.
Caption information source: “Joe and the Joetator”, by Kent Peterson, reprinted by Peterson from The Recumbent Cyclist News, May/June 1998. Retrieved from www.carstink.org/peterson/Joetator