In December 1988, Kingdon Gould, Jr., purchased an option to buy the railroad right-of-way after failing to buy it outright for the purpose of restarting the railroad. However, once Montgomery County made a deal to buy their section of the trail, Gould placed the section in the District of Columbia, between Georgetown and the D.C./Maryland boundary, into a trust until the National Park Service could purchase it outright for $10.5 million in 1990. The DC section then became a component of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. In 1991, advocates John Dugger and Henri Bartholomot helped secure federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act funding to develop the Maryland portion of the trail. The funding also paid for the DC portion and the rehabilitation of the Arizona Avenue Trestle.