Arlington Boulevard

Arlington Boulevard is a major arterial road in Arlington County, Fairfax County, and the independent City of Fairfax in Northern Virginia in metropolitan Washington, DC, United States. It is designated U.S. Route 50 (US 50) for its entire length and is part of the National Highway System.

Arlington Boulevard
Component
highways		 US 50
FromTheodore Roosevelt Bridge
ToFairfax City
Construction
Inauguration1938
Arlington Boulevard westbound in Arlington, just west of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge
Arlington Boulevard crossing Four Mile Run

Arlington Boulevard serves to bisect Arlington County into its northern and southern sections in popular parlance and for designation of street directional affixes according to the county's street-naming system.

Route
See also: U.S. Route 50 in Virginia

Arlington Boulevard begins in the east at an interchange with Interstate 66, Virginia State Route 110, and the George Washington Memorial Parkway (I-66 Exit 75) at the foot of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge over the Potomac River to Washington, DC. It proceeds westward soon turning south along the edge of Fort Myer army post. Most of the junctions in this section are grade-separated interchanges. At an interchange with Washington Boulevard (VA 27), the road turns west again and continues in that direction for the remainder of its length.

Arlington Boulevard has interchanges with VA 120 (Glebe Road) in Arlington County and VA 7 (Leesburg Pike)/VA 338 (Hillwood Avenue)/SR 613 (Wilson Boulevard) at Seven Corners and I-495 (Capital Beltway) in Fairfax County.

It terminates just inside Fairfax City at a traffic circle with US 29 (Lee Highway and Fairfax Boulevard) and Old Lee Highway. VA 237, which arrives at the circle as Lee Highway concurrent with US 29, also concurs with US 50 on Arlington Boulevard for less than 1/3 mile before turning south onto Pickett Road.

History

Arlington Boulevard has a shorter history than many other major arterial roads in the region and was only built in the first half of the 20th century in several stages beginning in the west and progressing east. The entire route was complete in 1938 with the final section around Fort Myer. The road was originally called Lee Boulevard but, with Lee Highway being another major route in Northern Virginia, the name was changed to Arlington Boulevard in the early 1950s.

Between 1935-37, the US 50 designation was attached to the road even though it had yet to be completed past Glebe Road, then VA 9. Before that, the road was VA 236, a number now assigned to the nearby Little River Turnpike.

The completed Arlington Boulevard's eastern terminus was originally the crossing of the George Washington Memorial Parkway on Columbia Island in the District of Columbia. With the completion of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge in 1964, Arlington Boulevard's terminus was moved to its present location.

Arlington Boulevard Trail

The Arlington Boulevard Trail is a set of discontinuous trails and on-road bike routes, 11 miles in length, on both sides of Arlington Boulevard. The trail runs from N. Rhodes Street in Arlington County to Fairview Park Drive in Falls Church. It has been proposed that the trail be extended to Pickets Road in Fairfax Virginia.[1]

The trail opened on November 18, 1974, in conjunction with preferential bus lanes, as a 1.7 mile long, paved trail between the Four Mile Run Trail and North Pershing Drive in Arlington. It was Arlignton's 2nd Trail.[2] By 1976, the trail had been extended west with another 2.3 miles. In May 1979, the trail was extended east from its endpoint at North Pershing, around Fort Myer to Arlington Memorial Bridge.[3][4] In 2014, a new segment was built from N. Pershing to Rolfe street on the east side of Arlington Boulevard, and the old section from Rhodes to N. Pershing was widened and extended under 10th Street, closing a gap in the trail.[5][6] In 2017, the short section from Wainwright Road to Washington Boulevard was repaved as part of a Washington Gas Pipeline Replacement Project.[7]

See also

Notes
  1. Oleson, Andrew (Fall 2014). Arlington Boulevard Trail Concept Plan. WABA. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  2. "Added Bus-Lane-Only Portion Set in Arlington on Monday". Washington Post. 12 November 1974.
  3. Hodge, Paul (22 April 1976). "Magnificent trails are planned, but will bikers ever ride them?". The Washington Post.
  4. Hodge, Paul (10 May 1979). "Paving, Bridge Construction to Open Portion of Virginia Trail". The Washington Post.
  5. Cranor, David (11 January 2015). "New Arlington Boulvard Trail on east side". Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  6. Thomson, Robert (20 April 2012). "VDOT plans to untangle Arlington Boulevard". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  7. "Arlington Boulevard Pipeline Replacement" (PDF). Retrieved 20 September 2018.

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