The Woodlands Waterway is an award-winning 1.8-mile water amenity, strolling linear park for walking, jogging or biking and a transportation corridor to catch a free trolley ride in The Woodlands. Highlighting a mixed-use urban center along its path, The Woodlands Waterway links to shopping and dining, commercial businesses, residential living, entertainment like the world-renowned Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, public art, Town Green Park and Waterway Square, a one-acre destination featuring signature fountains choreographed to music and a stage for community performances.
The Waterway began in 1972 as a small drainage system and a long-range vision of George Mitchell and The Woodlands Development Company, now The Howard Hughes Corporation. Robert Heineman, retired Vice President of Planning & Design for Howard Hughes, drew a transit corridor through the heart of a future Town Center on a fabled napkin sketch (which in reality was a notecard). The vision lived on paper for 27 years until construction began in 1999.
- In 1999, construction began on The Woodlands Waterway.
- In 2002, The Woodlands Waterway was introduced through a Grand Opening celebration.
- In 2004, an extension of The Woodlands Waterway to The Woodlands Mall was open.
- In 2009, The Woodlands Waterway, extending from the turning basin to Lake Woodlands, was completed.
- In 2017, The Woodlands Waterway opened to Hughes Landing.
- On March 8, 2018, The Woodlands Waterway final extension was celebrated.
(The Woodlands, Feb 25, 2022)