[4] The Burke–Gilman trail runs along the Fremont Cut, Lake Union (an old freight depot remains visible at the foot of Stone Way), and through the University of Washington campus.

[3] A major point of contention since the 1990s regarding the remaining "missing link" project was the industrial nature of the Salmon Bay waterfront, through which this portion of the trail would pass.

Local business owners voiced concerns about the safety and liability issues inherent in the convergence of Ballard Terminal Railroad trains, trucks, cyclists, and pedestrians.

[11] The city council included a routing along Leary Way instead of Shilshole Avenue, where industrial businesses had opposed the trail's construction, in a transportation levy that will be placed on the November 2024 ballot.

[12] The trail can trace its origins to the founding of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway on April 15, 1885, by ten men headed by judge Thomas Burke and Daniel Gilman.

In its heyday, Burke and Gilman's road extended from Downtown Seattle north to Arlington and east to Rattlesnake Prairie above Snoqualmie Falls.

In 1978, the first 12.1 miles (19.5 km) of the right-of-way, from Seattle's Gas Works Park to Kenmore's Tracy Owen Station, was opened as a public trail and named after the founders of the railroad.