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Potomac, Virginia

Potomac, Virginia

Potomac, Virginia is an extinct town formerly located in Arlington County. A planned community, its proximity to Washington D.C. made it a popular place for employees of the U.S. government to live. Potomac was located adjacent to the massive Potomac Yard of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. The area was developed beginning in 1894 as the communities of Del Ray, St. Elmo, Mt. Ida, and Hume, following a grid plan independent of that of Old Town Alexandria. Potomac was incorporated as a town in 1908. In 1928, the town had 2,355 residents. In 1930, the Town of Potomac was annexed by the independent city of Alexandria in 1930. Today, in Alexandria, the Town of Potomac Historic District designates this historic portion of the city, and includes 1,840 acres and 690 buildings. The Town of Potomac was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. As of 2005, the United States Postal Service still recognizes "Potomac, VA" as an acceptable alternate address for ZIP code 22301, although "Alexandria, VA" is preferred.

External links

- [http://ci.alexandria.va.us/ City of Alexandria, official web site]
- [http://www.delraycitizen.org/history.html Del Ray History, from the Del Ray Citizens Association] Town of Potomac Town of Potomac Town of Potomac Town of Potomac Town of Potomac

Town

There is no universal, standard definition of the word town. This is mostly due to the evolution of the English language as an amalgamation of words from many other languages. "City" and "village" came into English from Latin via French. "Town" and "borough" (also "burrow," "burgh," "bury," etc.) are native English and Scottish words.

Etymology of the word and use around the world

In Old English and Old Scots, "Town" (or "toun," "ton," etc.) originally meant a fortified municipality, whereas a borough was not fortified. But that distinction did not last long, and "Edina Burgh" or "Edinburgh" - modernly called a "city" - was a fortified "town" from its founding. In American English, a town is usually a municipal corporation that is smaller than a city but larger than a village. In some cases, "town" is an alternate name for "city" or "village" (especially a larger village). Sometimes, the word "town" is short for "township." In general, towns can be differentiated from townships, villages, or hamlets on the basis of their economic character, in that most of a town's population will tend to derive their living from manufacturing industry, commerce, and public service rather than primary industry such as agriculture or related activities. A place's population size is not a reliable determinant of urban character. In many areas of the world, as in India at least until recent times, a large village might contain several times as many people as a small town. The modern phenomena of extensive suburban growth, satellite urban development, and migration of city-dwellers to villages have further complicated the definition of towns, creating communities urban in their economic and cultural characteristics but lacking other characteristics of urban localities. Some forms of non-rural settlement, such as temporary mining locations, may be clearly non-rural, but have at best a questionable claim to be called a town. The distinction between a town and a city similarly depends on the approach adopted: a city may strictly be an administrative entity which has been granted that designation by law, but in informal usage, the term is also used to denote an urban locality of a particular size or importance: whereas a medieval city may have possessed as few as 10,000 inhabitants, today some consider an urban place of fewer than 100,000 as a town, even though there are many officially designated cities that are very much smaller than that.

Australia

In Australia, the status of a town is formally applied in only a few states. Most states do define cities, and towns are commonly understood to be those centres of population not formally declared to be cities and usually with a population in excess of about 250 people. The creation and delimitation of Local Government Areas is the responsibility of the state and territory Governments. In all states and the Northern Territory each incorporated area has an official status. The various LGA status types currently in use are:
- New South Wales: Cities (C) and Areas (A)
- Victoria: Cities (C), Rural Cities (RC), Boroughs (B) and Shires (S)
- Queensland: Cities (C), Shires (S), Towns (T) and Island Councils (IC)
- South Australia: Cities (C), Rural Cities (RC), Municipalities/Municipal Councils (M), District Councils (DC), Regional Councils (RegC) and Aboriginal Councils (AC)
- Western Australia: Cities (C), Towns (T) and Shires (S)
- Tasmania: Cities (C) and Municipalities (M)
- Northern Territory: Cities (C), Towns (T), Community Government Councils (CGC) and Shires (S).

Reference

- [http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/9f0b5791ed98061fca256f1900128409?OpenDocument Australian Bureau of Statistics: Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) 2005]

England and Wales

In England and Wales, the status of a city is reserved for places that have a Royal Charter entitling them to the name, traditionally associated with the possession of a cathedral. Some large municipalities are legally boroughs but not cities, whereas some cities are quite small — St. David's for instance. It is often thought that towns with bishops' seats rank automatically as cities: however, Chelmsford remains a town despite being the seat of the Diocese of Chelmsford. St. Asaph, which is the seat of the Diocese of St. Asaph, is another such town. Within Greater London, there are two cities, each with its own cathedral - the City of London (St. Paul's Cathedral; Anglican) and the City of Westminster (Westminster Cathedral; also Anglican). Historically, a town was generally distinguished from a village by having a regular market or fair. Not all towns were boroughs. There are some English villages (e.g. Kidlington, Oxfordshire) larger than some small towns (e.g. Middleham, North Yorkshire). The word town can also be used as a general term for urban areas, including cities. In this usage, a city is a type of town — a large one, with a certain status. For example, London is a city, but is sometimes referred to as "London town" (the "City of London" is the nucleus informally known as the "Square Mile"). Also, going from the suburbs to central London is to "go into town".

Germany

Germans do not differentiate between city and town. The German word for both is "Stadt" as it is in many other languages that do not make any difference between the Anglo-Saxon concepts. A town with more than 100,000 inhabitants is called a Großstadt, which is the most adequate equivalence for city.

The United States

City of London In the United States of America, the meaning of the term town varies from state to state. In some states, a town is an incorporated municipality, that is, one with a charter received from the state, similar to a city. Typically, municipalities are classed as cities, towns or boroughs, or villages in decreasing order of size, although not all states have all three levels. Many states do not use the term "town" for incorporated municipalities. In some states, for example Wisconsin, "town" is used in the same way that civil township is used in elsewhere. In other states, such as Michigan, the term "town" has no official meaning and is simply used informally to refer to a populated place, whether incorporated or not. In the six New England states, a town is a municipality, and in these states, in practice a more important unit than the county. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, in fact, counties only exist as map divisions and have no legal functions; in the other four states, counties are primarily judicial districts, with other functions primarily in New Hampshire and Vermont. In all six, towns perform functions that in most states would be county functions. The defining feature of a New England town, as opposed to a city, is that a town meeting and a board of selectmen serve as the main form of government for a town, while cities are run by a mayor and a city council. For example, Brookline, Massachusetts is a town, even though it is fairly urban, because of its form of government. In New York, a town is similarly a subdivision of the county, but with less importance than in New England. Of some importance is the fact that, in New York, a town provides a closer level of governance than its enclosing county, providing almost all municipal services to unincorporated areas, called hamlets and selected services to incorporated areas, called villages. In New York, a town typically contains a number of such hamlets and villages. However, due to the independent nature of Incorporated Villages, they may exist in two towns or even two counties. Everyone in New York State who does not live in an Indian reservation or a city lives in a town and possibly in one of the town's hamlets or villages. (Some other states have similar entities called townships.) In New York, "town" is essentially short for "township." In Virginia, a town is an incorporated municipality similar to a city (though with a smaller required minimum population), but while cities are by Virginia law independent of counties, towns are contained within a county. In California (where the term "village" is not used), "town" is simply another word for "city" (especially a "general law city", as distinct from a "charter city").

External links

- [http://www.open-site.org/Regional Open-Site Regional] — Contains information about towns in numerous countries. als:Stadt ja:村落 simple:Town

Arlington County, Virginia

Arlington County is an urban county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the U.S. , directly across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. Originally part of the District of Columbia, by an act of Congress July 9, 1846, the area south of the Potomac was returned (retroceded) to Virginia effective in 1847. As of the year 2000, the population is 189,453. Its county seat is the census-designated place of Arlington. Strictly speaking, it is inaccurate to refer to a city or town of Arlington. All cities within the state are independent of counties, though normally towns may be incorporated within counties. However, Arlington has no existing incorporated towns, and Virginia law prevents the creation of any new municipality within a county that has a population density greater than 1,000 persons per square mile, which Arlington County (and its neighbor, Fairfax County) exceeds. Arlington CDP is co-extensive with Arlington County. Arlington is a partner city with Aachen in Germany, Reims in France, and Coyoacán in Mexico.

History

Alexandria County

Coyoacán Arlington County shares with a portion of the independent City of Alexandria, Virginia the distinction of being once in Virginia, then ceded to the US government to form the District of Columbia, and later retroceded to Virginia. Arlington was part of the original 10-mile square created as the District of Columbia in 1790 pursuant to Article I, Section 17, of the United States Constitution. The portion of the District created from territory ceded by Virginia was termed Alexandria County of the District of Columbia. It included the present Arlington County plus part of what is now the independent city of Alexandria, Virginia. Over time, a movement grew to separate Alexandria from the District of Columbia. As competition grew with the port of Georgetown, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal favored the north side of the Potomac, the city's economy stagnated. In addition, many in Alexandra hoped to benefit from land sales and increased business from the federal government, but it had no need for the land south of the river. In addition, its residents had lost representation and the right to vote at any level of government. Alexandria was also an important port and market in the slave trade there was increasing talk of abolition of slavery in the national capital, and the economy would suffer greatly if slavery was outlawed. At the same time, there was an active abolition movement in Virginia, and the state's General Assembly was closely divided on the question of slavery (resulting in the formation of West Virginia eighteen years later by the most anti-slavery counties) and Alexandria and Alexandria County would provide two new pro-slavery representatives. After a referendum, voters petitioned Congress and Virginia to return the area to Virginia. The area was retroceded to Virginia by on July 9, 1846.[http://www.citymuseumdc.org/gettoknow/faq.asp] In 1870, the City of Alexandria seceded from Alexandria County, and because of the confusion between the city and the county having the same name, a movement started to rename Alexandria County. In 1920, the name Arlington County was adopted, after Arlington House, the home of the American Civil War general Robert E. Lee, which stands on the grounds of what is now Arlington National Cemetery.

Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington is an American military cemetery established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's home, Arlington House. It is situated directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., next to the present-day location of The Pentagon. With more than 260,000 people buried there, Arlington National Cemetery has the second-largest number of people buried of any national cemetery in the United States. Arlington House was named after the Custis family's homestead on Virginia's Eastern Shore. It is uniquely associated with the families of Washington, Custis, and Lee. Begun in 1802 and completed in 1817, it was built by George Washington Parke Custis. After his father died, young Custis was raised by his grandmother and her second husband, the first US President George Washington at Mount Vernon. Custis, a farsighted agricultural pioneer, painter, playwright, and orator, was interested in perpetuating the memory and principles of George Washington. His house became a "treasury" of Washington heirlooms. In 1804 Custis had married Mary Lee Fitzhugh. Their only child to survive infancy was Mary Anna Randolph Custis, born in 1808. Young Robert E. Lee, whose mother was a cousin of Mrs. Custis, frequently visited Arlington. Two years after graduating from West Point, Lieutenant Lee married Mary Custis at Arlington on June 30, 1831. For 30 years, Arlington House was home to the Lees. They spent much of their married life traveling between U.S. Army duty stations and Arlington, where six of their seven children were born. They shared this home with Mary's parents, the Custis family. When George Washington Parke Custis died in 1857, he left the Arlington estate to Mrs. Lee for her lifetime and afterwards to the Lees' eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee. The [http://www.nps.gov/arho/ Custis-Lee Mansion] and 200 acres (81 hectares) of ground immediately surrounding it were confiscated from Confederate General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War, and was designated officially as a military cemetery June 15, 1864, by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. In 1882, after many years in the lower courts, the matter of the ownership of Arlington National Cemetery was brought before the United States Supreme Court. The Court decided that the property rightfully belonged to the Lee Family. The United States Congress then appropriated the sum of $150,000 for the purchase of the property from the Lee Family. Veterans from all the nation's wars are buried in the cemetery, from the American Revolution through the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pre-Civil War dead were re-interred after 1900. The Tomb of the Unknowns, also known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, stands atop a hill overlooking Washington, DC. Other frequently visited sites in the cemetery are the USMC War Memorial, commonly known as the "Iwo Jima Memorial"; the Netherlands Carillon; and the grave of President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy is buried with his wife and some of their children. His grave is marked with an "Eternal Flame." His brother Senator Robert F. Kennedy is also buried nearby. Another President, William Howard Taft, who was also a Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, is the only other President buried at Arlington. thumb

Town of Potomac

The Town of Potomac was formerly located in Arlington County adjacent to the massive Potomac Yard of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. A planned community, its proximity to Washington D.C. made it a popular place for employees of the U.S. government to live. Potomac was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Town was annexed by the independent city of Alexandria in 1930. Today, in Alexandria, the Town of Potomac Historic District designates this historic portion of the city, and includes 1,840 acres and 690 buildings. The Town of Potomac was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

The Pentagon

1992 The Pentagon in Arlington is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. It was dedicated on January 15, 1943 and it is the world's largest office building. Although physically located in Arlington, the Pentagon uses a Washington, D.C. address. The building is pentagon-shaped in plan and houses approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel. It has five floors and each floor has five ring corridors. Built during the early years of World War II, it is still thought of as one of the most efficient office buildings in the world. Despite 17.5 miles (28 km) of corridors it takes a maximum of seven minutes to walk between any two points in the building. It was built from 680,000 tons of sand and gravel dredged from the nearby Potomac River that were processed into 435,000 cubic yards (330,000 m³) of concrete and molded into the pentagon shape. Very little steel was used in its design due to the needs of the war effort. The central plaza in the Pentagon is the largest "no-salute, no-cover" area (where hats need not be worn and salutes are not required) in the world. The open space in the center is informally known as ground zero, a nickname originating during the Cold War when it was thought of as the most likely target of a nuclear missile. During World War II, the earliest portion of the Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway was built in Arlington in conjunction with the parking and traffic plan for the Pentagon. This early freeway, opened in 1943, and completed to Woodbridge, Virginia in 1952, is now part of Interstate 395.

9/11 Attack hits Arlington

Interstate 395 Sixty years to the day after groundbreaking on the Pentagon, the September 11, 2001 attacks occurred. The Pentagon was one of the three major US buildings struck by airliners hijacked by terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda, a militant terrorist organization. American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the Pentagon at 9:37 AM EDT, killing all of its 58 passengers (including the hijackers) and 6 crew. The section of the Pentagon hit consisted mainly of new, unoccupied offices and was damaged by the crash and the ensuing violent fire. The crash and subsequent fire penetrated three outer ring sections of the western side. The outermost ring section was largely destroyed, and a large section collapsed. 125 people in the Pentagon died from the attack. For pictures and graphics showing the damage in the impact see this [http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2001/g010915-D-6570C.html briefing]. It has been speculated that the hijackers of a fourth hijacked aircraft, United Airlines Flight 93, intended to crash into either the U.S. Capitol or the White House in Washington, DC. Black box recordings revealed that the passengers attempted to seize control of the plane from the hijackers and when rocking the plane failed to subdue the passengers, the hijackers crashed the aircraft in a field near Shanksville and Stonycreek Township in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. During the September 11, 2001 attacks, the efforts of Arlington County Fire Department and EMS personnel (and others from neighboring jurisdictions), as well of those aboard United Airlines Flight 93 helped limit the loss of life and damages to the Washington DC area. thumb

Government

Arlington is governed by a 5 person County Board, whose members are elected to 4 year terms. Arlington also elects 4 Members of the 100 Member Virginia House of Delegates and 2 Members of the Virginia Senate. State Senators are elected to 4 year terms, while Delegates are elected to 2 year terms.
- PAST ARLINGTON ELECTION RESULTS
- 2005 Governor...Tim Kaine...(D)- 74%
- 2004 President..John Kerry..(D)- 68%
- 2004 House........Jim Moran...(D)- 60%
- 2001 Governor...Mark Warner.(D)- 68%
- 2000 President..Al Gore.....(D)- 60%
- 1997 Governor...Don Beyer...(D)- 62%
- 1996 President...Bill Clinton(D)- 60%

Transportation

Airports

Arlington is the home of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Public Transportation

Arlington is served by the Orange, Blue, and Yellow Lines of the Washington Metro. Additionally, it is served by Virginia Railway Express (commuter rail), Metrobus (regional public bus), and a local public bus system [http://www.commuterpage.com/art/ Arlington Transit] (ART).

Roads in Arlington

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Length of roads in county

According to a rough estimation provided to one of the editors of this article in a 2005 E-mail by an engineering office of Arlington County, there are approximately 559 miles of roads in the county.

Maintenance of roads

2005 at sunset]] Arlington County is one of only two counties in Virginia which maintain their own roads (with the exception of primary state highways, including U.S. Highways and Interstates), the other being Henrico County outside the State Capital of Richmond. This special status was due to the existence of county highway departments prior to the creation of the state agency which is now VDOT in 1927, and the assumption of local roads by that agency in 1932. The control of the roads system is considered a powerful advantage for community urban planners, who can require developers to contribute to funding needed for road needs serving their projects.

Addressing and street-naming conventions

Arlington is divided into two sections by the east-west US 50 (Arlington Boulevard), which divides streets into "north" and "south" designations. The streets are named in the following manner. East-west streets are numbered, radiating outwards from Route 50; most numbers have one "street" and one "road" on each side of Route 50. North-south streets are alphabetical from east to west, with streets beginning with the letters A through W (as X, Y, and Z are skipped). When the end of the alphabet is reached it starts over from the beginning, but each street name will now have one more syllable than in the previous set. Ball Street (one syllable 'B') is the easternmost street and Arizona Street is the westernmost (four syllable 'A'). The numbered and alphabetical streets described in the preceding paragraph are designated as though Arlington were laid out on a consistent grid plan, which for the most part it is not. Originally, the various communities in the county had independent street-naming conventions. However, when county officials asked the United States Postal Service to place the entire county in a single "Arlington, Virginia" postal area, the USPS refused to do so until the county had a unified addressing system, which the county developed in 1932. For that reason, and also because Arlington is hilly, it is common for streets to terminate and continue later on in another location.

Arterial routes

This does not apply to the main arteries (none of which are "streets"). The north-south arteries from east to west are US 1 (Jefferson Davis Highway), Walter Reed Drive, Glebe Road, George Mason Drive and Carlin Springs Road. The east-west arteries from north to south are Williamsburg Boulevard, Yorktown Boulevard, Lee Highway (US 29), Wilson Boulevard, US 50 (Arlington Boulevard), Columbia Pike and Four Mile Run Drive. Another main artery, Washington Boulevard, used to be a cow path, and runs both east-west and north-south. Through most of Arlington it runs east-west between Wilson Boulevard and Lee Highway. When it gets to the east side of town, it turns south and crosses US-50 and becomes VA 27, a freeway, before crossing Columbia Pike and intersecting with I-395. It then turns back northeast and runs past the Pentagon to end at the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

Bicycle paths

There are a number of bike paths through Arlington including the Mount Vernon Trail, which continues through Alexandria to George Washington's plantation home. Nearby the airport, Four Mile Run intersects the path and continues westward. In addition, the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail along Four Mile Run extends westward from Arlington out to Purcellville, 45 miles away, and provides a pleasant ride for bikers wishing to take a longer route. Other notable trails include the Custis Trail, which parallels Route 66, and a myriad of smaller trails and roads with bicycle access.

Geography

Arlington is one of the smallest counties in the continental United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 67 km² (26 mi²), of which about 12 km² (4.6 mi²) is federal property. Arlington is located at 38°52'49" North, 77°6'30" West (38.880344, -77.108260). It is bounded on the north by Fairfax County, on the west by the City of Falls Church, on the south by the City of Alexandria, and on the east by the Potomac River; across the river is the City of Washington, DC. A person standing on Memorial Bridge in Arlington is exactly as far from the Cumberland Gap, Virginia's western extreme point, as they are from downtown Boston, Massachusetts -- 394 miles (636 km).

Neighborhoods in Arlington

Image:Arlington_VA_200x440.jpg

Image:DC & Arlington VA.png

There are numerous unincorporated neighborhoods within Arlington that are commonly referred to by name as if they were distinct towns, and characterized by the county as "urban villages." These include:
- Ballston
- Clarendon
- Columbia Pike
- Courthouse
- Crystal City
- Lee Highway/North Arlington
- Pentagon City
- Rosslyn
- Shirlington
- Virginia Square
- Westover thumb There are also numerous neighborhoods which are largely residential, including:
- Alcova Heights
- Arlington Forest
- Arlington Heights
- Arlington Ridge
- Arlington View
- Arno
- Ashton Heights
- Aurora Hills
- Balls Crossing
- Barcroft
- Bluemont
- Boulevard Manor
- Buckingham Villiage
- Cherrydale
- Claremont
- Columbia Forest
- Columbia Heights
- Crescent Hills
- Dominion Hills
- Donaldson Run
- Douglas Park
- East Falls Church
- Fairlington
- Forest Hills
- Glencarlyn
- Long Branch
- Lyon Park
- Lyon Village
- Madison Manor
- Maywood
- New Dover
- Nauck (also known as Green Valley)
- Rivercrest
- Waverly Hills
- Woodlawn
- Williamsburg
- Yorktown Arlington includes a large selection of Sears Catalog Homes, which were offered between 1908 and 1940. Considered to be of exceptional quality, in modern times, these houses are sought after by many home buyers.

Famous Residents

Ian Mackaye (Rock Singer/Guitarist, b.1962)

Postal areas

The three-digit ZIP code prefix 222 uniquely identifies Arlington. Delivery areas north of Arlington Boulevard have odd-numbered ZIP codes (22201, 22203, 22205, 22207, 22209, and 22213), while delivery areas south of Arlington Boulevard have even-numbered ZIP codes (22202, 22204, and 22206). ZIP codes assigned to post office boxes, large mailers, and military facilities do not follow that rule.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there are 189,453 people, 86,352 households, and 39,290 families residing in Arlington. The population density is 2,828/km² (7,323/mi²), the highest of any county in Virginia. There are 90,426 housing units at an average density of 1,350/km² (3,495/mi²). The racial makeup of the county is:
- 60% White
- 19% Hispanic
- 9% Black
- 9% Asian
- 4% mixed race. 28% of Arlington residents are foreign-born. There are 86,352 households out of which 19.30% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.30% are married couples living together, 7.00% have a female householder with no husband present, and 54.50% are non-families. 40.80% of all households are made up of individuals and 7.30% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.15 and the average family size is 2.96. In the county, the population is spread out with 16.50% under the age of 18, 10.40% from 18 to 24, 42.40% from 25 to 44, 21.30% from 45 to 64, and 9.40% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 101.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 100.70 males. The median income for a household in the county is $63,001, and the median income for a family is $78,877. Males have a median income of $51,011 versus $41,552 for females. The per capita income for the county is $37,706. 7.80% of the population and 5.00% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 9.10% of those under the age of 18 and 7.00% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line. In 2004 the average single-family home sales price passed $600,000, approximately triple the price less than a decade before, and the median topped $550,000.

Arlington CDP Population History

- 1960.....163,401
- 1970.....174,284
- 1980.....152,299
- 1990.....170,936
- 2000.....189,453

Education

Arlington is served by the Arlington Public Schools system. The public high schools in Arlington are Yorktown High School, Washington-Lee High School, Wakefield High School, and the H-B Woodlawn program. The Middle Schools in Arlington include: Swanson Middle School, Williamsburg Middle School, H-B Woodlawn Program, Kenmore Middle School, Thomas Jefferson Middle School, and Gunston Middle School. Arlington County spends about half of its revenue on education, making it one of the top ten per-pupil spenders in the nation (as of 2004, over $13,000, the second highest amount spent on education in the United States, behind New York City).

Notes

- Although Arlington CDP had a population of 135,449 in 1950, the Census did not treat Arlington as a CDP because in 1950 CDPs were assigned to rural areas only. They were first assigned to urban areas during the 1960 Census.

External links

- [http://www.arlingtonva.us/ Arlington County official website]
- [http://www.stayarlington.com/ Arlington Convention and Visitors Service official website]
- [http://arlingcc.wliinc3.com/index.asp Arlington Chamber of Commerce]
- [http://www.arlingtonvirginiausa.com/ Arlington Economic Development Agency official website]
- [http://www.commuterpage.com/art/villages/ Arlington's Urban Villages]
- [http://www.arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org/ Arlington Historical Society]
- [http://photos.historical-markers.org/va-arlington/ Arlington County's Historical Markers]
- [http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/?id=101487 Arlington Skyscrapers at Emporis]
- [http://www.nvar.com/ Northern Virginia Assn. of Realtors (market statistics)]
- [http://mxmonline.tripod.com/ Max X. Miller Online September 11, 2001 Audio and Video Archive and Memorial including Washington DC & Arlington, VA Fire Depts.]
- [http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/index.html The Final 9/11 Commission Report]
- [http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&day_of_911=aa77 AA Flight 77: Minute by Minute]
- http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/
- http://www.nps.gov/arho/ Arlington House (National Park Service webpage)
- [http://www.glencarlyn.org/ Glencarlyn neighborhood webpage]
- http://www.interment.net/data/us/va/arlington/arlington/index.htm Category:Virginia counties Category:Washington, D.C. suburbs Category:Census-designated places in Virginia Category:History of the District of Columbia Category:Potomac River counties

Planned community

:For the place, see New Town. A New town or planned community or planned city is a city, town, or community that was designed from scratch, and grew up more or less following the plan. Many of the world's capital cities are planned cities, notably Washington, DC in the United States, Abuja in Nigeria, Brasília in Brazil, Canberra and Adelaide in Australia, and New Delhi, Chandigarh, Fatehpur Sikri and Gandhinagar in India, Isfahan in Iran and Islamabad in Pakistan. It was also common in European colonization of the Americas to build according to a plan either on fresh ground or on the ruins of earlier Amerindian cities.

Ancient Rome

Although Rome itself was never a planned settlement, the Romans built a large number of towns throughout their empire, often as colonies for the settlement of citizens or veterans. These were generally characterised by a grid of streets and a planned water-supply; and many modern European towns of originally Roman foundation still retain part of the original street-grid. The most impressive Roman planned town was the city of Constantinople. Roman Emperor Constantine the Great chose the site for the new metropolis and began construction. His plans quickly fell into place. The modern city (known since 1930 as Istanbul) has changed much since then, but it must be remembered that the city did not develop due to simple human migrational patterns nor pure military advantage. Constantine wanted a city to mark his magnificence and Constantinople fulfilled the desire.

Australia

Adelaide was founded by British and German colonists in 1836 to test out Edward Gibbon Wakefield's theories of systematic colonisation. Convict labour was not employed and the colony in theory would be financially self-sufficient; in practice government assistance was used in the early stages. Land had been sold before anyone set foot in the largely unexplored territory and the city (the basis for the future CBD) was surveyed and planned in a remarkably short space of time. Adelaide's design has been praised for its four-square design, choice of setting and ample parklands which have had minimal encroachment of developments. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, was established in 1908 as the Federal Capital following the federation of the six Australian colonies which formed the Commonwealth of Australia. The new nation required a capital that was located away from other major settlements such as Melbourne and Sydney. Canberra is thus located in a Territory - the Australian Capital Territory - and not a State. Prior to this time the land that Canberra is found on was nothing more than farming land and forest. In 1912, after an extensive planning competition was completed, the vision of American Walter Burley Griffin was chosen as the winning design for the city. Extensive construction and public works were required to complete the city, this involved the flooding of a large parcel of land to form the cente piece of the city, Lake Burley Griffin. Unlike other Australian cities the road network, suburbs, parks and other elements of the city were designed in context with each other, rather than haphazard planning as witnessed in much of Sydney. Notable buildings include the High Court, Federal Parliament, Government House, War Memorial, Anzac Parade and headquarters of the Department of Defence.

Brazil

The country's capital, Brasília was a planned city built in the middle of the vast empty center of Brazil, at that time (1960) thousands of kilometers from any big city. It was built in four years, and as such concrete needed to be transported by airplane at times. The former capital of Brazil was Rio de Janeiro, and the resources tended to be concentrated in the southeast region of Brazil. While in part the city was built because there was the need for a neutral federal capital, the main reason was to promote the development of Brazil's hinterland and better integrate the entire territory of Brazil (although some say the real reason was to move the government to a place far from the masses). Brasília is approximately at the geographical center of Brazilian territory. The city is designed in the shape of an airplane, despite the fact that Lúcio Costa insists he shaped it like a butterfly. Housing and offices are situated on giant superblocks, everything following the original plan. The plan specifies which zones are residential, which zones are commercial, where industries can settle, where official buildings can be built, the maximum height of buildings, etc. Other notable planned cities in Brazil include Belo Horizonte (inaugurated in 1897), Goiânia, and Curitiba.

Canada

When Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald began to settle the West in Canada, he put the project under the command of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The CPR exercised complete control over the development of land under its ownership. The federal government granted every second square mile section (totalling 101,000 km²) along the proposed railway line route to the CPR. The CPR decided where to place railway stations, and thus would decide where the dominant town of the area would be. In most instances the CPR would build a station on an empty section of land to make the largest profit from land sales — meaning that the CPR founded many of the Canadian West's towns, such as Medicine Hat and Moose Jaw, from scratch. If an existing town was close to the newly constructed station but on land not owned by the CPR, the town was forced to move itself to the new site and reconstruct itself, essentially building a new town. Calgary and Yorkton, Saskatchewan, were among the towns that had to move themselves. After the CPR established a station at a particular site, it would plan how the town would be constructed. The side of the tracks with the station would go to business, while the other side would go to warehouses. Furthermore, the CPR controlled where major buildings went (by giving the town free land to build it where the CPR wanted it to go), the construction of roads and the placement and organization of class-structured residential areas. The CPR's influence over the development of the Canadian west's communities was one of the earliest examples of new town construction in the modern world. In the modern suburban context, the Erin Mills Development located in the larger, incorporated city of Mississauga, Ontario is likely the largest planned suburban development or New Town in Canada. Phased development began in the early 1970's and continues to this day. Another example would be the Cornell development in Markham, Ontario also near Toronto, Canada, much of which incorporates housing "wired up" for the high-speed internet access.

France

A program of new towns (French villes nouvelles) was developed in the mid-1960s in France. Nine villes nouvelles were created.
- Near Paris: Cergy-Pontoise, Marne-la-Vallée, Sénart (former Melun-Sénart), Évry, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
- Near Lille: Villeneuve d'Ascq (Former Lille-Est)
- Near Lyon: Isle d'Abeau
- Near Marseille: Rives de l'Etang de Berre
- Near Rouen: Val de Reuil

Hong Kong

The area of Hong Kong is very mountainous and many places in the New Territories are remote to access by road transport. Hong Kong started developing new towns in the 1950s, to accommodate booming populations. In the early days the term "satellite cities" was used. The very first new towns included Tsuen Wan and Kwun Tong. Wah Fu Estate was built in a remote corner on Hong Kong Island. In the late 1960s and the 1970s, another stage of new town developments was launched. Nine new towns have been developed so far. Land use is carefully planned and development provides plenty of room for public housing projects. Roads and later rail transport are usually available. The first towns are Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun. Tuen Mun was intended to be self-reliant, but was not successful. Recent developments are Tin Shui Wai and North Lantau (Tung Chung - Tai Ho).

India

The period following independence saw India being defined into smaller geographical regions. New states like Gujarat were formed, hence their capitals were planned.
- New Delhi is a planned city.
- Chandigarh is a planned city. Its planning was done by Le Corbusier.
- Gandhinagar is also a planned city, with a city plan different from that of Chandigarh.
- Dispur
- Navi Mumbai

Iran

In the period of the Persian Safavid Empire, Isfahan, the Persian capital, was built according to a pre-planned scheme, consisting of a long boulevard and planned housing and green areas around it. In modern day Iran more than 20 planned cities have been developed or are under construction, mostly around Iran's main metropolitan areas such as Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz. Some of these new cities are build for special porpuses such as:
- Pardis which is built as a scientific city.
- Poulad-Shahr which is an industrious city built for the housing of Isfahan's steel industry workers.
- Shirin Shahr which is to provide housing for the suger industry personnel.
- Tehranpars which was built to house Tehran's additional population.
- Shahrak-e Gharb , built as a massive project of modern apartment buildings.
- Parand which is intended to provide residences for the staff of Imam Khomeini International Airport.
- Shushtar New Town which was built to provide housing for the employees of a sugar cane processing plant. 576,000 people have been planned to be settled in Iran's new towns by the year 2005. For a list of Iran's modern planned cities see: List of Iran's planned cities.

Ireland

Londonderry was the first ever planned city in Ireland, it was begun in 1613, which is when the name was changed from Derry. The walls were actually completed 5 years later in 1618. The central diamond within a walled city with four gates was thought to be a good design for defence.[http://www.planningni.gov.uk/AreaPlans_Policy/Conservation/Londonderry/HistoricCityCA.pdf] In the Republic of Ireland, as in the United Kingdom, the term "new town" is often used to refer to planned towns built after World War II which were discussed as early as 1941. The term "new town" in Ireland was also used for some earlier developments, notably during the Georgian era. Part of Limerick city was built in a planned fashion as "Newtown Pery". In 1961 the first new town of Shannon was commenced and a target of 6,000 inhabitants was set, this has been exceeded. Shannon is of some regional importance today as an economic centre (with the Shannon Free Zone and Shannon International Airport), but until recently failed to expand in population as anticipated. Since the late 1990s, and particularly in the early 2000s, the population has been expanding at a much faster rate, with town rejuvenation, new retail and entertainment facilities and many new housing developments. It was not until 1967 that the Wright Report planned four towns in County Dublin. These were Blanchardstown, Clondalkin, Lucan and Tallaght but in actuallity this was reduced to Blanchardstown, Lucan-Clondalkin and Tallaght, each of these towns has approximately 50,000 inhabitants today. None of the Dublin towns were particularly successful this is partly due to their proximity to the city of Dublin and lack of services. The most recent new town in Ireland is Adamstown in County Dublin. As of 2005, building has commenced and it is anticipated that occupation will commence later in this year with the main development being completed within a ten year timescale.

Japan

Borrowed from New Town movement in the UK, Japan has built some 30 new towns all over the country. Most of them are located near Tokyo and Kansai regions. These towns, unlike those in the UK, do not provide employments. Much of the residents commute to the nearby city. These towns fostered the infamous congestion of commuter trains. Japan has also developed the concept of new towns to what Manuel Castells and Sir Peter Hall call technopole. In the past, the Japanese government had proposed relocating the capital to a planned city, but this plan was cancelled.

Netherlands

One province of The Netherlands, Flevoland (pop. 330,000 (March 2002)), was reclaimed from IJsselmeer. After a flood in 1916, it was decided that the Zuiderzee, an inland sea within the Netherlands, would be closed and reclaimed. In 1932, the Afsluitdijk was completed, which closed off the sea completely. The Zuiderzee was subsequently called IJsselmeer. The first part of the new lake that was reclaimed was the Noordoostpolder (Northeast polder). This new land included, among others, the former island of Urk and it was included with the province of Overijssel. After this, other parts were also reclaimed: the eastern part in 1957 (Oost-Flevoland) and the southern part (Zuid-Flevoland) in 1968. The municipalities on the three parts voted to become a separate province, which happened in 1986. The capital of Flevoland is Lelystad, but the biggest city is Almere (pop. 170.704 in January 2004). Apart from these two larger cities, several 'New Villages' were built. In the Noordoostpolder the central town of Emmeloord is surrounded by ten villages, all on cycling distance from Emmeloord since that was the most popular way of transport in the 1940s. Most noteworthy of these villages is Nagele which was designed by famous modern architects of the time, Gerrit Rietveld, Aldo van Eyck and Jaap Bakema among them. The other villages were built in a more traditional/vernacular style. In the more recent Flevolandpolders four more 'New Villages' were built. Initially more villages were planned, but the introduction of cars made fewer but larger villages possible. New towns outside Flevoland are Hoofddorp and IJmuiden near Amsterdam, Hellevoetsluis and Spijkenisse near Rotterdam and the navy port Den Helder. The cities of Almere, Capelle aan den IJssel, Haarlemmermeer (also a reclaimed polder, 17th century), Nieuwegein, Purmerend and Zoetermeer are members of the [http://www.newtowns.net/newtowns/index_html European New Town Platform].

Poland

The very diverse layouts in Poland's planned cities is the result of the different aesthetics that were held as ideal during the development of these planned communities. Planned cities in Poland have a long history and fall primarily into three time periods during which planned towns developed in Poland. These are the Nobleman's Republic (16th-18th c.), the interwar period (1918-1939) and Socialist Realism (1944-1956).

Nobleman's Republic

The extreme opulence that Poland's nobility enjoyed during the Renaissance left Poland's elites with not only obscene amounts of money to spend, but also motivated them to find new ways to invest their hefty fortunes away from the grasp of the Royal Treasury. Jan Zamoyski, Great Crown Chancellor and Hetman whose financial empire within the Polish Republic was known as the "Zamoyski Ordinate" spanned 6400 km² with 11 cities and over 200 villages, in addition to the royal lands he controlled of over 17 500 km² with 112 cities and 612 villages. The "Zamoyski Ordinate" functioned as a country with in a country, and Zamoyski founded the city of Zamość in order to circumvent royal tariffs and duties while also serving as the capital for his mini-state. Zamość as he named his city was planned by the renowned Paduan architect Bernardo Morando and modelled on Renaissance theories of the 'ideal city'. Realizing the importance of trade, Zamoyski issued special location charters for representatives of peoples traditionally engaged in trade, i.e. to Greeks, Armenians and Sefardic Jews and secured exemptions on taxes, customs duties and tolls, which contributed to its fast development. Zamość was so successful that 11 years after its construction began it had only 26 empty lots left. During the following years Zamość Academy and numerous churches were built as well as fortifications were completed. Zamość Zamoyski's success spawned numerous other Polish nobles to found their own "private" cities such as Bialystok and many of these towns survive today, while Zamość was added to the UN World Heritage list in 1992 and is today considered one of the most precious urban complexes in Europe and in the world.

Interwar period

The preeminent example of a planned community in interwar Poland is Gdynia. After World War I when Poland regained its independence it lacked a commercial seaport, making it necessary to build one from scratch. The extensive and modern seaport facilities in Gdynia, the most modern and extensive port facilities in Europe at the time, became Poland's central port on the Baltic Sea. In the shadow of the port, the city took shape mirroring in its scope only the rapid development of 19th century Chicago, Illinois, USA, going from a small fishing village of 1,300 in 1921 into a full blown city with a population over 126,000 less than 20 years later. The City's Central Business District that developed in Gdynia is a showcase of Art Deco and Modernist architectural styles and predominate much of the cityscape. There are also villas, particularly in the city's villa districts such as Kamienna Góra where Historicism inspired Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque architecture

Socialist realism

After the destruction of most Polish cities in World War II, the Communist regime that took power in Poland sought to bring about architecture that was in line with its vision of society. Thus urban complexes arose that reflected the ideals of socialist realism. This can be seen in districts of Polish cities such as Warsaw's MDM. The City of Nowa Huta (now district of Krakow) was built as the epitome of the proletarian future of Poland.

Singapore

The new town planning concept was introduced into Singapore with the building of the first New Town, Queenstown from July 1952 to 1973 by the country's public housing authority, the Housing and Development Board. Today, the vast majority of the approximately 11,000 public housing flats are organised into 22 new towns across the country. Each new town is designed to be completely self-sustainable. Helmed by a hierarchy of commercial developments ranging from a town centre to precinct-level outlets, there is no need to venture out of town to meet the most common needs of residences. Employment can be found in industral estates located within several towns. Educational, health care, and recreational needs are also taken care of with the provision of schools, hospitals, parks, sports complexes, and so on. Singapore's expertise in successful new town design was international recognised when the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) of the United Nations awarded the World Habitat Award to Tampines New Town, which was selected as a representative of Singapore's new towns, on 5 October 1992.

United Kingdom

The Romans planned many towns in Britain, but the settlements were changed out of all recognition in subsequent centuries. The town of Winchelsea is said to be the first post-Roman new town in Britain, constructed to a grid system under the instructions of King Edward I in 1280, and largely completed by 1292. The best known pre-20th century new town in the UK was undoubtedly the Edinburgh New Town, built in accordance with a 1766 master plan by James Craig, and (along with Bath and Dublin) the archetype of the elegant Georgian style of British architecture. However, the term "new town" is now used in the UK, in the main, to refer to the towns developed after World War II under the New Towns Act 1946. These grew out of the garden city movement, launched around 1900 by Ebenezer Howard and Sir Patrick Geddes and the work of Raymond Unwin, and manifested at Letchworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire. Following World War II, a number of towns (eventually numbering 28) were designated under the 1946 Act as New Towns, and were developed partly to house the large numbers of people who had lost homes during the War. New Towns policy was also informed by a series wartime commissions, including:
- the Barlow Commission (1940) into the distribution of industrial population,
- the Scott Committee into rural land use (1941)
- the Uthwatt Committee into compensation and betterment (1942)
- (later) the Reith Report into New Towns (1947). Also crucial to thinking was the Abercrombie Plan for London (1944), which envisaged moving 1.5 million people from London to new and expanded towns. Together these committees reflected a strong consensus to halt the uncontrolled sprawl of London and other large cities, under the axiom if we can build better, we can live better. This consensus should probably be viewed in conjunction with emerging concern for social welfare reform (typified by the Beveridge Report). The first of a ring of such "first generation" New Towns around London (1946) was Stevenage in Hertfordshire. Later a scatter of "second-generation" towns were built to meet specific problems, such as the development of the Corby steelworks, or the new car plant at East Kilbride. Finally, five "third-generation" towns were launched in the late 1960s: these were larger, some of them based on substantial existing settlements such as Peterborough, and the most famous was probably the new city of Milton Keynes, midway between London and Birmingham, known for its huge central park and shopping centre, and its concrete cows. All the new towns featured a car-oriented layout with many roundabouts and a grid-based road system unusual in the old world. The earlier new towns, where construction was often rushed and whose inhabitants were generally plucked out of their established communities with little ceremony, rapidly got a poor press reputation as the home of "new town blues". These issues were systematically addressed in the later towns, with the third generation towns in particular devoting substantial resources to cycle routes, public transport and community facilities, as well as employing teams of officers for social development work. The financing of the UK new towns was creative. Land within the designated area was acquired at agricultural use value by the development corporation for each town, and infrastructure and building funds borrowed on 60-year terms from the UK Treasury. Interest on these loans was rolled up, in the expectation that the growth in land values caused by the development of the town would eventually allow the loans to be repaid in full. However, the high levels of retail price inflation experienced in the developed world in the 1970s and 1980s fed through into interest rates and frustrated this expectation, so that substantial parts of the loans had ultimately to be written off. From the 1970s the first generation towns began to reach their initial growth targets. As they did so, their development corporations were wound up and the assets disposed of: rented housing to the local authority, and other assets to the Commission for the New Towns (in England; but alternative arrangements were made in Scotland and Wales). The Thatcher Government, from 1979, saw the new towns as a socialist experiment to be discontinued, and all the development corporations were dissolved by 1990, even for the third generation towns whose growth targets were still far from being achieved. Ultimately the Commission for the New Towns was also dissolved and its assets - still including a lot of undeveloped land - passed to the English Industrial Estates Corporation (later known as English Partnerships). In the 1990s an experimental "new town" developed by The Prince of Wales to use very traditional or vernacular architectural styles was started at Poundbury in Dorset. In Northern Ireland, Craigavon in County Armagh was a successful town commenced and built in in 1966 outside of Belfast, although entire blocks of apartments and shops laid empty, and later derelict, before eventually being bulldozed. The area, which now has a population exceeding 50,000 is mostly a dormitory town for Belfast. See also: Town and Country Planning in the United Kingdom; New towns in the United Kingdom for the full list of post-war new towns.

United States

New towns in the United Kingdom In the early history of America, planned communities were quite common: Jamestown, Philadelphia, Williamsburg, and Annapolis are examples of this trend. Washington, DC, Indianapolis, Indiana; Raleigh, North Carolina; Madison, Wisconsin; Tallahassee, Florida; and Austin, Texas are unusual, having been carved out of the wilderness to serve as capital cities. (Other cities with this distinction are Brasília in Brazil, Yamoussoukro in Côte d'Ivoire, Canberra in Australia and Islamabad in Pakistan.) Pullman, now incorporated into Chicago's Southwest side, was a world renowned company town founded by the industrialist George M. Pullman in the 1880's. Greenbelt, Maryland, which was built in the 1930s, was one of a series of planned communities built during that era. The Levittowns - in Long Island, Pennsylvania and New Jersey - typified the planned communities of the 1950s and early 1960s. California's Rohnert Park is another example of a planned city built at the same time as Levittown's which was marketed to attract middle class people into an area only populated with farmers with the phrase, "A Country Club for the middle class." The era of the modern planned city began in 1963 with the creation of Reston in western Fairfax County, Virginia, which was begun just a year before Columbia in Howard County, Maryland. In more recent years, New Urbanism has set the stage for new cities, with places like the idyllic Seaside, Florida and Disney's new town of Celebration, Florida. In recent years, new towns such as Mountain House, California have added a new wrinkle to the movement: to prevent conurbation with nearby cities, they have imposed strict growth boundaries, as well as automatic "circuit breakers" that place moratoriums on residential development if the number of jobs per resident in the town falls below a certain value. (The proposed new town of Centennial, on the Tejon Ranch halfway between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, will incorporate such restrictions in order to minimize the commuter load on severely congested I-5). With energy prices steadily increasing and anti-sprawl sentiments gaining currency, it is likely that most future new towns will be along "smart growth" and New Urbanist lines.

External links

- [http://www.newtowns.net/newtowns/index_html European New Town Platform]
- [http://www.villes-nouvelles.equipement.gouv.fr/index2.html French new towns] (in French)
- [http://whc.unesco.org/sites/564.htm Renaissance town of Zamość]
- [http://www.info.gov.hk/tdd/towns/index.htm Hong Kong new towns]
- [http://www.tcpa.org.uk/ Town and Country Planning Association] (formerly the Garden Cities Association)
-
- Category:Urban studies and planning Category:Housing in the United Kingdom ja:ニュータウン

Potomac Yard

Potomac Yard was one of the busiest railroad yards on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Today, it refers to the neighborhood encompassing the same, which straddles southeastern Arlington County and northern Alexandria, Virginia, bounded by U.S. Highway 1, the George Washington Memorial Parkway, Four Mile Run, and Braddock Road. It may also refer to one of several developments on the site, especially the Potomac Yard Retail Center strip mall.

History

English settlers built several plantations on the site in the 1700s. The land, much owned by the Swann and Daingerfield families, became part of Alexandria County, D.C. with the creation of the District of Columbia in 1791, and retroceded to Virginia in 1846. Its role as a transportation hub began when Congress chartered the Alexandria Canal Company in 1830. The Canal, which opened on December 2, 1843, would connect the port of Alexandria with the end of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (completed 1850) in Georgetown via the Potomac Aqueduct Bridge. It would operate until abandoned in 1886. Railroad development began in the 1850s, though stymied by political concerns and by the American Civil War. Order to the region's mishmash of active and abandoned rail lines and stations did not come until the City Beautiful movement of the late 19th century. The 1901 Plan for Washington, D.C. (report of the McMillan Commission) proposed consolidating the region's rail operations, including a new Washington Union Station (approved 1903, completed 1908) and a New Long Railroad Bridge (completed 1904). In accordance with the plan, the Pennsylvania Railroad, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Southern Railway, Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and Seaboard Air Line Railway formed the Richmond-Washington Company to manage traffic. It would control the new Alexandria Union Station, which opened in 1905, and the new switching yard—Potomac Yard—which opened in October 15, 1906. The booming "Pot Yard" attracted thousands of workers, who largely settled in the areas of Del Ray and St. Elmo. These subdivisions incorporated as the town of Potomac in 1908, but were annexed by the City of Alexandria in 1930. Potomac Yard in its heydey was one of the busiest railyards in the Eastern United States, processing thousands of cars daily. The Pennsylvania Railroad extended its railway electrification program to Potomac Yard in 1935, marking its southermost point—the Penn Central segment of the famous Tropicana Juice Train operated from here. The site reached capacity in 1937. As rail traffic declined in the mid-20th century, Potomac Yard also declined. The PRR's old catenary was dismantled in the 1980s. The facility was declared a toxic waste site in 1987. The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad (RF&P) finally decommissioned it in 1989. Plans for rehabilitation and redevelopment of the land have been a source of intense debate since then.

Redevelopment

At decommissioning, decades of industrial use had left the site contaminated with heavy metals and hydrocarbons, including diesel. It was immediately declared a Superfund site. In 1995 the Environmental Protection Agency approved RF&P's study and cleanup plan, and cleanup was declared completed by 1998. Various commercial and community interest groups came into conflict over the future of the brownfield land. The City of Alexandria rejected the original mixed use plan in 1992. Jack Kent Cooke, owner of the Washington Redskins, unsuccessfully pushed for the construction of a new football stadium on the site. Seventy of the 400 acres (1.6 km²) of the site were approved for retail use in 1995; the Potomac Yard Center, a controversial 589,856-square-foot strip mall dominated by big box stores, was completed in 1997. Other sections of Potomac Yard have since been slated for development as residential units, office space, parkland, and retail use. The Potomac Yard Complexby Crescent Resoureces is already under construction, with One and Two Potomac Center nearing completion as of Nov 2005.It includes two plans, one for Arlington and one for Alexandria. The Alexandria portion of the site is highlighted by a new Town Center. The plan also includes 1.9 million square feet of office space; a 625-room hotel; 135,000 square feet of neighborhood retail space; and approximately 1,900 residential units.The plan for the Arlington site includes 2.8 million square feet of office space; a 625-room hotel; 100,000 square feet of neighborhood retail space; and approximately 1000 residential units. The plan also calls for a 25-acre park, which will be owned by Arlington County, north of Crystal City. An additional proposal was floated to make part of the site a hub for local transit, with service by Virginia Railway Express, local bus lines, and a new in-fill station served by the Yellow and Blue Lines of the Washington Metro system. If approved as proposed, it would be the first Metro station constructed entirely using private funds.

References

- Alexandria Archaeology Museum: [http://oha.ci.alexandria.va.us/archaeology/ar-resource-areas.html Archaeology Resource Areas: Potomac]
- Hammer, Ben. "[http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2004/05/24/story2.html Potomac Yard sale could alter mix]," Washington Business Journal, May 21, 2004.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mid-Atlantic Superfund: [http://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/super/sites/VAD020312013/ Potomac Yard]
- Washington, DC Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society [http://www.dcnrhs.org/dc_rail_history_long_bridge.htm History of the Long Railroad Bridge Crossing Across the Potomac River]

External links

- City of Alexandria: [http://www.ci.alexandria.va.us/planningandzoning/pdf/sap_potomac_yard_potomac_green.pdf Potomac Yard/Potomac Greens Small Area Plan] (PDF), Adopted 1992 Master Plan.
- McCaffery Interests: [http://www.mccafferyinterests.com/content/current/pyr.htm Potomac Yard Retail Center] Category:Arlington County, Virginia Category:Alexandria, Virginia Category:Washington, D.C. history Category:Rail transport in the United States

Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad

The Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad was a railroad connecting Richmond, Virginia to Washington, DC. It is now a portion of the CSX Transportation system. The RF&P was a bridge line, with a slogan of "Linking North & South". (A bridge line has more traffic passing through its connections with other railroads than it originates or terminates at points along the line.) For the major portion of its existence, the RF&P connected with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Seaboard Air Line Railroad at Richmond. At Alexandria and through trackage rights to Union Station in Washington, DC, connections were made with the Pennsylvania Railroad, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Southern Railway.

History

The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad was chartered on February 25, 1834 to run from Richmond north via Fredericksburg to the Potomac River. It opened from Richmond to Hazel Run in 1836, to Fredericksburg on January 23, 1837 and the rest of the way to the Potomac River at Aquia Creek on September 30, 1842. On September 30, 1852, an extension to the north opened. This split from the existing line at Brooke and ran north to Quantico, also on the Potomac. The old line to Aquia Creek became a branch. On the other end of the line, the Alexandria and Washington Railroad was chartered on February 27, 1854 to build from the south end of the Long Bridge (14th Street Bridge) over the Potomac River south to Alexandria. That line opened in 1857. The railroad went bankrupt and was sold July 9, 1887, being reorganized November 23, 1887 as the Alexandria and Washington Railway. In 1873 the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad's branch over the Long Bridge opened, giving a route into Washington, D.C., over which the A&W obtained trackage rights. The Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway was chartered February 3, 1864 to continue the line from Alexandria to Fredericksburg. It opened on July 2, 1872, only reaching Quantico, the north end of the RF&P. At Quantico the 1.70-mile (2.7 km) Potomac Railroad, chartered April 21, 1867 and opened May 1, 1872, connected the two lines. It was leased to the RF&P for 28 years from May 17, 1877. On March 31, 1890, the two companies terminating in Alexandria merged to form the Washington Southern Railway. Until November 1, 1901 it was operated by the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad and its successor the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad (part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system). The Potomac Railroad lease was transferred to the Washington Southern on June 30, 1904. On February 24, 1920 the Washington Southern was formally merged into the RF&P. The Richmond-Washington Company was incorporated September 5, 1901 as a holding company, owning the entire capital stock of the two railroads. The stock of the company was owned equally by the Pennsylvania Railroad, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Southern Railway, Seaboard Air Line Railway and Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Four of these companies have since become part of CSX. The Southern Railway is now part of Norfolk Southern, and does not use the former RF&P; the former Pennsylvania Railroad has been split between CSX and Norfolk Southern. From 1902 to 1908, major sections of the main line totalling 21 miles (34 km) were relocated.

Branches

;Richmond Connection The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac and Richmond and Petersburg Railroad Connection was chartered March 3, 1866 and opened May 1, 1867 as a connection between the RF&P and the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad (later part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad) west of downtown Richmond. It was operated jointly by those two companies. In addition, a downtown connection was owned by the R&P past Broad Street Station. ;Louisa The Louisa Railroad was chartered in 1836, running from the RF&P at Doswell west to Louisa. At first it was operated as a branch of the RF&P, but it was reorganized as the Virginia Central Railroad in 1850 and merged into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in 1868 as its oldest predecessor. ;Rosslyn The short branch from the north end to Rosslyn opened in 1896, and was sold to the Rosslyn Connecting Railroad in 1903, which was controlled by the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad.

Station listing

External links

- [http://www.rfandp.org/ Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad Historical Society]

References

- [http://www.earlpleasants.com/search_1.asp Railroad History Database]
- [http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/rail/Prr/Corphist/rf_p.html Corporate Genealogy - Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac]
- [http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/rail/Prr/Corphist/ws.html Corporate Genealogy - Washington Southern]
- Mileposts from [http://web.archive.org/web/20040718192935/www.trainweb.org/csxtimetables/Contents.html CSX Transportation Timetables]

Grid plan

The grid plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid.

Ancient grid plans

The grid plan dates from antiquity; some of the earliest planned cities were built using grids. A workers' village at Giza, Egypt (2570-2500 BC) housed a rotating labor force, and was laid out in blocks of long galleries separated by streets in a formal grid. Many pyramid-cult cities used a common orientation: a north-south axis from the royal palace, and an east-west axis from the temple, meeting at a central plaza where King and God merged and crossed. During the same period in history, Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley (present-day Pakistan) was built with blocks divided by a grid of straight streets running north-south and east-west. Each block was subdivided by small lanes. Hammurabi (17th century BC) was a king of the Babylonian Empire who made Babylon the world's first great metropolis. He rebuilt Bablylon, building and restoring temples, city walls, public buildings, and building canals for irrigation. The streets of Babylon were wide and straight, intersected approximately at right angles, and were paved with bricks and bitumen. The tradition of grid plans is continuous in China from the 15th century BC onward. Guidelines put into written form in the Kaogong ji during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) stated: "A capital city should be square on plan. Three gates on each side of the perimeter lead into the nine main streets that crisscross the city and define its grid-pattern. And for its layout the city should have the Royal Court situated in the south, the Marketplace in the north, the Imperial Ancestral Temple in the east and the Altar to the Gods of Land and Grain in the west." The first planned Greek city was probably Miletus, built after 479 BC. Its gridded design has been credited to Hippodamus (although this may be apocryphal), a Greek intellectual associated with the Pythagoreans. The grid plan was a common tool of Roman city planning, based originally on its use in military camps known as castra. One of the most striking extant Roman grid patterns can be found in the ruins of Timgad in modern-day Algeria. The Roman grid is characterized by a nearly perfectly orthogonal layout of streets, all crossing each other at right angles, and by the presence of two main streets, set at right angles from each other and called the cardo and the decumanus. Teotihuacan, near modern-day Mexico City, is the largest ancient grid-plan site in the Americas. By 150 AD, the city's grid covered eight square miles.

Asia from the first millennium AD

As Japan and the Korean peninsula became politically unified in the 7th century AD, those societies adopted Chinese grid-planning principles in numerous locations. The ancient capitals of Japan, such as Fujiwara-Kyô (694-710 AD), Nara (Heijô-Kyô, 710-784 AD), and Heian-Kyô (794-1868 AD) used grid plans. So did Kyongju in Shilla (present-day Korea), also of the same era. The grid-planning tradition in Asia continued through the beginning of the 20th century.

Europe and its colonies

New European towns were planned using grids beginning in the 12th century, most prodigiously in the [http://www.nucouncil.net/nucouncil.asp?a=spf&pfk=3&gk=59 bastides] of southern France that were built during the 13th and 14th centuries. Medieval European new towns using grid plans were widespread, ranging from Wales to the Florentine region. Many were built on ancient grids originally established as Roman colonial outposts. The Roman model was also used in Spanish fortification settlements during the Reconquista of Ferdinand and Isabella. It was subsequently applied in the new cities established during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, after the founding of La Laguna (Canary Islands) in 1496. In 1573, King Phillip II of Spain compiled the [http://www.arc.miami.edu/Law%20of%20Indies.html Laws of the Indies] to guide the construction and administration of colonial communities. The Laws specified a square or rectangular central plaza with eight principal streets running from the plaza's corners. Hundreds of grid-plan communities throughout the Americas were established according to this pattern, echoing the practices of earlier Indian civilizations. The grid plan became popular wi