The rail trail is approximately 10 feet (3.0 m) wide through much of its length and is a shared use path that is suitable for walking, running, cycling, and roller skating.

While traveling through Reston, the trail crosses Wiehle Avenue (VA 828), 0.3 miles (0.5 km) northeast of the Wiehle–Reston East station on Washington Metro's Silver Line.

[14] Arlington County When the W&OD Railroad closed in 1968, its 100 feet (30.5 m) wide right-of-way extended from Potomac Yard in Alexandria to the center of Purcellville.

[34] In 1979, the trail was extended 26 miles (42 km) westward from Falls Church to Goose Creek with the aid of a federal Rails-to-Trails grant, although it was only paved as far as Maple Avenue East (VA Route 123) in Vienna - a distance of 6 miles (10 km); and by 1979 Fairfax County had built Buckthorn Lane on a raised area across the right-of-way, forcing the trail to leave the ROW and climb up to the road.

[38][39] During that same time period, the NVRPA began paving the easternmost section of trail from Shirlington Road to Columbia Pike (VA 244) in Arlington, with that work completed by the end of 1983.

[56] On June 15, 2011, VDOT opened a new trail bridge over I-495 that was constructed as part of the Capital Beltway High Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes project.

[62] Also in 2017, NOVA Parks made within the County a set of safety improvements at the trail's crossing of S. Sterling Boulevard (VA 846), including removing one left turn lane to reduce the trail's crossing distance, installing Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons, and widening the Boulevard's median [63] On March 12, 2021, the VDOT opened a W&OD Trail pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Lee Highway (U.S. 29) in Arlington County's East Falls Church neighborhood as part of its "Transform 66 - Inside the Beltway" I-66 eastbound widening project.

The bridge was recommended in an April 2008 study by the Reston Metrorail Access Group, an advisory committee created in spring 2006 to prepare for the arrival of Metro’s Silver Line.

The Wiehle Metro station opened in 2014, but the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors didn’t approve a final design for the bridge crossing until July 2018.

[69] In June 2018, NOVA Parks received a $3.2 million grant from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority that enabled it to expand a 1.2 miles (1.9 km) long W&OD Trail segment within the City of Falls Church.

[70] The two imperviously-surfaced trails traveled through a 16 acres (6 ha) urban open space that a 2016 Falls Church master plan had called "The City's Greenest Street".

In June 2014, the owner of a property adjacent to the regional park demolished part of the structure to provide space for a planned self-storage facility.

In September 2014, the Arlington County Board designated the remaining portion of trestle, which was located on NVRPA property, as a local historic district.

Near the east end of Vienna, the poured concrete abutment of a bridge that carried an interurban trolley line, the Arlington & Fairfax Railway, over the W&OD Railroad remains on the north side of the trail.

[22] The trail crosses Goose Creek in Loudoun County on a span that NVRPA built on top of the piers and abutments of the highest and longest (268 feet (82 m)) bridge that the railroad constructed within the present boundaries of the regional park.

Limestone (calcium carbonate) from a company quarry was mixed with coal and burned in a nearby kiln that was adjacent to the railroad's tracks.

[107] Staffed by members of the Optimist Club of Greater Vienna, bearing on its sides the name "WASHINGTON & OLD DOMINION RAILROAD" and numbered 503, the caboose is open to the public during the afternoons on selected weekends and holidays.

[108] A metallic white railroad whistle post with black markings is located in Vienna Centennial Park on the north side of the Trail between Church Street NE and the caboose.

[110] The museum, which is open on Sundays from noon to 3:00 p.m. from March to mid-December, displays photographs and newspaper articles relating to the history of the Town of Herndon and the W&OD Railroad.

The museum additionally contains information about the history of a nearby Norfolk and Western Railway cupola caboose whose sides bore the name and logo of the W&OD Railroad and the number 504 in 2006.

[5] Some natural areas within the park are contiguous to larger natural areas in adjacent public parks, including those in and around the Sparrow Pond wetland,[116] Brandymore Castle[117] and Four Mile Run[118] in Arlington, Piney Branch and Difficult Run in Fairfax County,[119] and the confluence of Goose Creek and Sycolin Creek in Loudoun County.

The power company removes trees along this section of the trail to protect its lines, at times eliciting protests from members of the public and elected officials in the impacted jurisdictions.

In 2004, Dominion Virginia Power announced plans to extend its transmission lines in Loudoun County above ground from the Pleasant View Substation northwestward along the route of the W&OD Trail.

[122] In response, on November 15, 2005, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution of continued opposition to the installation of the proposed transmission lines along the Trail.

[125] In January 2007, an SCC hearing examiner recommended the construction of an overhead transmission line that would follow a wooded segment of the W&OD Trail between Leesburg and Clark's Gap.

[127] The Commission's approval order stated that the SCC had adopted the Examiner's recommendation against underground construction "due to both the physical, and the cost to the ratepayers, of the impacts that would result therefrom.

[131] The NVRPA expected the project to result in a significant loss of trees, as the power company planned to dig trenches on each side of the paved trail while installing duct banks to house its conduits.

[132] Supporting the NVRPA's expectation, Dominion Virginia Power noted that the environmental impacts associated with underground cable installation in suburban and rural areas are significantly greater than are those of overhead line construction.

[134] In July 2020, NOVA Parks received a $650,000 grant from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) that enabled NOVA Parks to make plans to extend the organization's "Dual Trails" project for 2 mi (3.2 km) eastward from the City of Falls Church into Arlington County (from North Roosevelt Street to North Carlin Springs Road).

[139] However, difficulties in identifying a route and acquiring land have prevented construction of a trail along the W&OD Railroad's abandoned right-of-way west of Purcellville.