A new piece of Miami’s Underline trail and park is open. Here’s where to go
Ssshhh. The newest segment of The Underline, the 10-mile urban trail and linear park that will soon connect the Miami River to Dadeland beneath the Metrorail tracks, has quietly opened for use by people on foot, on bikes and on e-conveyances.
The construction fences have come down, the lights are on after dark, and people are now welcome to explore the lushly planted new mile-long section, which extends the completed portion of The Underline from Southwest 19th Avenue all the way south to the Coconut Grove station. In fact, they’re already doing so —jogging, strolling and pedaling along.
The deliberately under-the-radar opening comes as yet another piece of The Underline, this one the first to open in Coral Gables, is also now almost ready for use. When it is, the people who are bringing you the $140 million project, which they hope will help redefine Miami, will host an official opening celebration for those two sections, probably in early September.
They’re also unveiling a significant new feature: The Underline is about to launch its own bikeshare system., with backing from corporate sponsor Inter, a financial app. The system will allow Underline users to rent a bike at stations from one end of the trail to the other once the full project is completed next year.
The new segments, said Underline originator Meg Daly, bring the project closer to fulfilling a promise that some once thought unlikely — converting all 10 miles of the scraggly, underused M-Path beneath the Metrorail into a linked series of parks, plazas, gardens and play spaces that also get people safely and pleasantly from one station or neighborhood to another. A key element of the project has been making substantial improvements to the numerous intersections along the Underline, including bright striping and signage as well as no-turn-on-right rules from side streets to U.S. 1, to ensure users’ safety.
“What I love about this new segment opening is that you can now go all the way from Brickell to Coconut Grove in one shot or on a round trip,” said Daly, who leads the Friends of the Underline nonprofit that works with Miami-Dade County in designing and managing the trail. “What’s exciting to me is that you have a combination of this big promise with those everyday moments of joy when you see someone going for a walk or a mom pushing a stroller on it.”
Rather than wait for the whole trail to be done for a grand opening, the Friends of the Underline likes to mark the occasion when sections are finished to draw public attention and encourage people in neighborhoods along the route to check them out.
The entire trail features trails for people on foot and people on wheels, typically though not always separated, and thickly verdant landscapes of native plants and trees, but each segment adds something new and different to the Underline’s growing and varied menu of places and activities. which can range from butterfly gardens and eco-swales to yoga and fitness classes, concerts, dance demonstrations and other performances.
The first half-mile Underline section, Brickell Backyard, which opened four years ago, brought a heavily used basketball court, seating for picnics and games, a butterfly garden, sculptures and murals. It runs from the river’s edge through the dense urban neighborhood’s Metrorail station.
It was followed a year ago by a roughly two-mile segment that starts at an instantly popular playground behind the city’s Simpson Park, then runs through the Vizcaya Metrorail station, where there is a plaza for yoga classes and other activities, to 19th Avenue.
The newly opened segment, which picks up there and runs along U.S. 1 along the edge of the Silver Bluff neighborhood to Southwest 27th Avenue, is inspired by neighboring Coconut Grove’s history as a Bohemian center for art and culture, food and street fairs. Its defining feature is the Inter-Grove Gallery, an expansive public space that encompasses murals, a community bookshelf where free books will be available for the taking, a bocce-ball court and a flexible plaza to host food trucks, markets and pop-up events.
Another feature, an art garden, strikes a note that Underline founders hope will become more common as the project is completed — private improvements and development that key off the trail
The garden is sponsored by Coconut Grove law firm Leesfield and Partners and its Legal Center, which provide legal services and education across the road on U.S. 1 The publicly minded firm is adding a public rooftop cafe, Cafe Cliente, that looks across at the Underline.
The Coral Gables section, which runs through the Douglas Road Metrorail station to the intersection of Ponce de Leon Boulevard. Grand Avenue and LeJeune Road, doesn’t yet connect to the other finished segment.
But Underline designers believe it will become one of the trail’s most popular destinations. That’s because of the expansive doggie park at its south end, which features separate play areas for big dogs and small ones, and exercise runs for the canines.
The Underline’s other missing pieces, meanwhile, are either already under construction or ready to start building. Sections rapidly nearing completion include the portion that will connect Coconut Grove to Douglas Road, and a long section extending north from the Dadeland South station to South Miami’s station that will include a wellness garden sponsored by Baptist Hospital and an innovative miniature forest.
One other section, connecting the near-finished Gables section to the University of Miami station along Ponce de Leon, is also well underway. Yet another section that will run along parking lots for the station and UM is close to starting construction.
The county also resolved an issue with some Coral Gables residents and the city over a planned Underline-only bridge spanning the Coral Gables Waterway at Riviera Drive. The bridge is being built with a redesign that curtails a viewing area over the canal so that people won’t try to fish from it.
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 5:30 AM.