[2] The GRT route and its contours were originally engineered by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, serving as a passenger and freight line before becoming unviable after the Great Depression.

The wheelchair-accessible trail features a hard-packed crushed-limestone surface[4] accommodating hiking, bicycling, ski-touring and horseback-riding.

"[4] The GRT follows portions of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway's former Greenbrier Division constructed between North Caldwell and Cass in 1899 and 1900.

The route was used heavily in the 1920s for through traffic via its connection with the Western Maryland Railway at Durbin, serving quarries, sawmills and tanneries[9] as well as agricultural and livestock operations.

[10] The Chesapeake and Ohio donated most of its right-of-way south of Durbin, including the land that became the Greenbrier River Trail, to the State of West Virginia on June 20, 1980.