Fairfax County — and the country — lost a champion on Wednesday with the passing of Representative Gerry Connolly. Connolly served 16 years in Congress, but I remember him best for the 14 he served on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. That’s when I first heard his name, and despite his national profile, Connolly spoke out for federal workers and the D.C. area until the end.

What I’ll best remember him for isn’t a bill or a speech, though — it’s a trail. The Gerry Connolly Cross-County Trail runs from one end of Fairfax County to another, from the Potomac River to the Occoquan. Connolly was key to making it happen, to pulling together the snippets of walks and paths, to seeking the permits and the permissions that carved a continuous passage through these heavily developed suburbs. If anyone had asked me if it could be done I would have laughed at the question. A trail? Through all of this congestion?

But Connolly and a dedicated group of volunteers found the through line. They saw the possibilities. They gave a congested, car-oriented place the beating green heart it deserves.

I’ve written about the Cross-County Trail often in this blog and elsewhere, have hiked the whole thing — twice — since I did every segment as a down-and-back. And some sections, the ones closest to my house, I’ve walked more times than I can count.

When I read the obituaries in yesterday’s paper I noticed that they didn’t mention the trail. It took a columnist to point it out. (Thank you, Marc Fisher!) Connolly will never know the spirits that have been soothed or the ideas that have emerged on the trail, what it’s made possible. But tens of thousands of Fairfax County residents do. And that would have made Connolly happy.