Ended operation January 18, 1932 Minimum radius of curvature (?) Began operation 1892 | Track gauge (?) Electrification (?) | |
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The earliest electric railway, or streetcar line, in Northern Virginia opened in 1892. At their peak, when merged into a single interurban system (the Washington-Virginia Railway), the successors of this and several other lines ran between downtown Washington, D.C., Rosslyn and Arlington Junction – in present-day Crystal City – and out to Mount Vernon, Fairfax City and Nauck (in Arlington County). Electric trolleys also went west from Georgetown and Rosslyn on the Washington and Old Dominion Railway's (W&OD's) Bluemont Division via Leesburg to the town of Bluemont at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In addition, electric trolleys of the W&OD's Great Falls Division traveled from Georgetown and Rosslyn via Cherrydale and McLean to Great Falls Park (see: Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad). Despite early success, the streetcars were unable to compete with the automobile and with each other, and, plagued with management and financial problems, ceased operations in the 1930s and 1940s.
Contents
- Washington Mount Vernon line
- East Arlington branch
- Washington Arlington Falls Church Railway
- Nauck line Fort Myer line
- Fairfax line
- North Arlington branch
- South Arlington branch
- References
Northern Virginia's trolleys were originally operated by three different companies that all planned to operate within the District of Columbia and were never integrated into the Washington streetcar network (see: Streetcars in Washington, D.C.). Their tracks were laid when most of Northern Virginia was undeveloped and had few streets and roads. As a result, the trolleys mostly operated on private rights-of-way that their companies leased or owned. After they began operating, a number of communities developed along their routes.
The major lines of the Washington-Virginia Railway converged at Arlington Junction. The Railway's trolleys then crossed the Potomac River near the site of the present 14th Street bridges over the Long Bridge and, beginning in 1906, the Highway Bridge. The trolleys then traveled to a terminal in downtown Washington located along Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, and D Street, NW, between 12th and 13 1/2 Streets, NW, on a site that is now near the Federal Triangle Metrorail Station and the Old Post Office building within the Federal Triangle. The W&OD Railway terminated in Georgetown at a station on the west side of the Georgetown Car Barn after crossing the Potomac River from Rosslyn over the Aqueduct Bridge.
The Washington-Virginia Railway and the W&OD Railway also had adjacent stations in Rosslyn near the present location of the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel. After the Francis Scott Key Bridge replaced the Aqueduct Bridge in 1923, none of the Virginia lines terminated in Georgetown. Instead, Washington streetcars crossed the river on the new bridge and entered a turnaround loop within Rosslyn. There, passengers could transfer between trolleys whose lines separately served Washington and Northern Virginia.
Washington-Mount Vernon line
The Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway began operating between Alexandria and Mount Vernon in 1892. On August 23, 1894, it was given permission to enter the District of Columbia using a boat or barge. However, the railroad never actually used any such watercraft.
The railroad completed its tracks in 1896 and began serving a waiting station at 14th Street NW and B Street NW. From the waiting station it used the Belt Line Street Railway Company's tracks on 14th Street NW to reach the Long Bridge, a combined road and rail crossing of the Potomac River. In 1906, the Long Bridge's road and streetcar tracks were relocated to a new truss bridge (the Highway Bridge), immediately west of the older bridge. This span was removed in 1967.
In 1902, the railroad moved its station, as the Belt Line's tracks were circling the block containing the site of a planned new District Building (now the John A. Wilson Building). The new station (address: 1204 N. Pennsylvania Avenue) extended along Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, and D Street, NW, from 12th Street, NW, to 13 1/2 Street, NW, near the site of the present Federal Triangle Metro station and on the opposite side of 12th Street from the Post Office building.
After crossing the Potomac River, the streetcars entered Arlington to run near and along the present routes of Interstate 395 (I-395) and S. Eads Street, travelling largely on the grade of a towpath on the west side of the defunct Alexandria Canal. Near Arlington's southern border, the railroad and its affiliates constructed an amusement park (Luna Park) and a rail yard containing a car barn and a power plant.
After crossing Four Mile Run into Alexandria, the streetcars ran along the present route of Commonwealth Avenue until reaching the city's Old Town area at King Street. The St. Elmo station (located on the present route of Commonwealth Avenue in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria) allowed passenger transfers with the Bluemont branch of the Southern Railway and later, with the Bluemont Division of the W&OD Railway, which crossed over the Mount Vernon line on a bridge near the station.
At Mount Vernon, when the electric railway began service, the estate's proprietors insisted that only a modest terminal be constructed next to the trolley turnaround. They were afraid that the dignity of the site would be marred by unrestricted commercial development and persuaded financier Jay Gould to purchase and donate thirty-three acres outside the main gate for protection.
By 1906, the railway had transported 1,743,734 passengers along its routes with 92 daily trains. During World War I, the line was extended to Camp Humphreys (now Fort Belvoir).
In 1913, the Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway merged with the Washington, Arlington & Falls Church Railway to form the Washington-Virginia Railway. The trolley company went into receivership in 1923 when buses became the dominant form of local public transportation (see: History of surface transit in Northern Virginia).
In 1927, the two railways were separated and sold at auction. The last trolleys of the line ran on January 18, 1932. Later that year the tracks were removed when some of the right-of-way was used for the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The path of the trolley turnaround at Mount Vernon remains as a traffic circle at the south end of the Parkway, while the former rail yard in southern Arlington now serves as a Metrobus yard.
Stations
The stations on the Washington-Mount Vernon Line of the Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway (Alexandria-Mount Vernon Branch of the Washington-Virginia Railway) were (with locations of sites in 2008):
Remnants of the Washington-Mount Vernon Line
East Arlington branch
The Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Railway constructed a branch line that traveled to the Virginia end of the Aqueduct Bridge in Rosslyn from a point named Arlington Junction on the railroad's Alexandria-Mount Vernon line. Along most of its route, the branch traveled along a section of Arlington Ridge Road that is now within Arlington National Cemetery.
Construction of this branch permitted visitors from Washington, D.C., to reach the Cemetery by rail for the first time. However, after leaving the trolley at the Cemetery's Sheridan Gate, the visitors needed to ascend a steep hill to reach most of the Cemetery's well-known features and burial sites.
Stations
The stations of the East Arlington branch were (with locations of sites in 2008):
Washington, Arlington & Falls Church Railway
During its forty years of life, this interurban trolley company operated under a variety of names, as it repeatedly expanded, reorganized or contracted (voluntarily or involuntarily).
Washington & Arlington — 1892–1896
On February 28, 1891, the United States Congress enacted a statute that incorporated the Washington and Arlington Railway Company in the District of Columbia, with authorization to reach Fort Myer and the northwest entrance of Arlington National Cemetery (the Cemetery's Fort Myer Gate) by crossing the Potomac River on a new bridge that the company would construct at or near the "Three Sisters" islets. The system started in 1892, as a horsecar line with tracks from Rosslyn up the hill to Fort Myer. In late 1895, the system was electrified. However, no bridge was built at the "Three Sisters" (see Three Sisters Bridge).
Washington, Arlington & Falls Church — 1896–1913
In 1896, track was laid from Rosslyn through Clarendon and Ballston to Falls Church and the name was changed to the Washington, Arlington & Falls Church (WA&FC). The track though Fort Myer was extended past the northwest entrance to Arlington National Cemetery to reach Penrose in 1900 and Nauck, just north of Four Mile Run, in 1901. That same year saw the opening of about a mile of additional track, extending from East Falls Church to West Falls Church. Work on a far more ambitious extension began at West Falls Church in 1903, bringing the line through Dunn Loring and Vienna in 1904 to reach the Fairfax County Courthouse in Fairfax City.
Washington - Virginia — 1913–1927
In 1913, the WA&FC and Washington, Alexandria & Mt. Vernon were merged to form the Washington - Virginia (W-V) Railway, whereupon the WA&FC became the W-V's Falls Church Division. The company fell upon hard times and in 1924 declared bankruptcy. In 1927, the two companies were split and sold at auction.
Arlington & Fairfax — 1927–1936
The Arlington & Fairfax was organized by local governments to take control of the WA&FC line after the W-V went bankrupt. In 1932, the company lost the right to travel into D.C., and, on January 17, 1932, the last Arlington & Fairfax streetcar departed from 12th & D Streets, NW, abandoning all service in Washington, D.C.
Arlington & Fairfax Auto Railroad — 1936–1939
In 1936, the company was sold to Detroit's Evans Products Company, an innovative railway and automotive industry supplier that had developed the first version of the present hy-rail system called auto-railers, small buses that can run on rails on flanged wheels or on roads with rubber. In 1937, Evans replaced the trolleys with auto-railers. On rail, they went to Rosslyn where they were intended to switch to tires and cross the Key Bridge into Georgetown, eliminating the change in Rosslyn, but Capital Transit prevented that service by objecting that its franchise gave it exclusive service across the bridge. The auto-railers last ran in September 1939.
Nauck line (Fort Myer line)
The Nauck line (Fort Myer line) ran south from Rosslyn through Fort Myer to an originally undeveloped area in South Arlington near Four Mile Run. After leaving the railroad's Rosslyn terminal near the Aqueduct Bridge, the line travelled south along the present routes of N. Lynn Street and N. Meade Street to reach the Fort. The line then turned to the southwest and entered the Fort near today’s Wright Gate. Within the Fort, trolleys on the line climbed a hill along the present route of McNair Road near the western wall of Arlington National Cemetery to reach a station (Arlington Fort Myer) located within the Fort at the present intersection of McNair Road and Lee Avenue, near the Cemetery's Fort Myer Gate (Chapel Gate of Fort Myer).
After disembarking at the Arlington Fort Myer station, visitors could enter the Cemetery at its highest elevation, thus avoiding the ascent required when entering the Cemetery through the Sheridan Gate from the East Arlington branch. After the East Arlington branch discontinued service in 1921, the Nauck line continued to carry visitors to the Cemetery.
The line then continued through Fort Myer, exiting the Fort a short distance north of the Fort's Hatfield Gate. When crossing the present path of Washington Boulevard (State Route 27) south of Arlington Boulevard (U.S. Route 50), the line met at its Hatfield station (Hatfield Junction) the South Arlington branch of the railroad's Fairfax line.
After leaving Hatfield, the Nauck line followed the present routes of S. Uhle Street and Walter Reed Drive before travelling downhill on S. Kenmore Street to end at a railway turntable at 24th Road S. and S. Kenmore Street. The line terminated a short distance north of the Cowdon station of the Southern Railway, and later, of the W&OD Railway's Bluemont Division.
Stations
The stations of the Nauck line (Fort Myer-Arlington Branch of the Washington Virginia Railway) were (with locations of sites in 2008):
Remnants of the Nauck line
Fairfax line
The Fairfax line traveled from a terminus in front of the Fairfax County Courthouse in Fairfax City through Oakton, Vienna, Dunn Loring, Falls Church and Ballston to downtown Washington, D.C., and Rosslyn by way of Clarendon.
Trolleys of the Fairfax line began their trips at the old Courthouse, located at the southwest corner of Chain Bridge Road (now part of State Route 123) and Main Street (now part of State Route 236). The cars first ran westward along Main Street and then turned north at the site of the Fairfax Electric Depot (the terminus of the line until the depot burned in 1907) onto the present route of Railroad Avenue. After crossing the present route of Lee Highway (U.S. Routes 50 and 29), the line crossed Chain Bridge Road. The line then traveled northeast through Fairfax County a short distance east of Chain Bridge Road, passed through Oakton, and reached the town of Vienna.
The line continued northeast in Vienna about a block southeast of Maple Avenue W. Trolleys on the line crossed Center Avenue S, turned to the northwest on a wye and crossed Maple Avenue E. After leaving the wye, the trolleys stopped at the line's Vienna station.
The Fairfax line's Vienna station was located in the center of town on the southeast side of Church Street NE, a short distance southeast of the tracks of the Southern Railway's Bluemont Branch, which became the W&OD Railway's Bluemont Division in 1912. The Southern's Vienna station (which remains intact on the southwest side of the W&OD Trail) was a block northwest of the Fairfax line's station.
As the Fairfax line's tracks ended near Church Street, trolleys left their station by reversing direction. They then recrossed Maple Avenue E and traveled southeast through a second leg of the wye that paralleled the Southern's tracks, with which there was an interchange. Freight and work cars usually bypassed the station and avoided reversing by turning from the northeast to the southeast on the third leg of the wye.
After leaving the wye, the line continued east in Vienna on Ninovan Road, paralleling the Southern's route. The line then crossed the Southern's tracks on a bridge built in 1904. After the crossing, the line traveled east along the present routes of Electric Avenue, Railroad Street and Helena Drive in Fairfax County until it reached the City of Falls Church.
The line continued eastward through Falls Church, following the present route of Lincoln Avenue until it reached the present Arlington County (formerly named Alexandria County). In Arlington, the line traveled eastward along the route of Fairfax Drive, which Interstate 66 (I-66) has partially replaced. Between 1912 and its closing, the line traveled under a plate girder bridge at Waycroft that the W&OD Railway constructed near the west end of Ballston for its Thrifton-Bluemont Junction connecting line.
The line then passed a complex containing a car barn, rail yard, workshops, electrical substation and general office that the Washington, Arlington and Falls Church Railway had built in 1910 at Lacey near the present intersection of North Glebe Road and Fairfax Drive in Ballston. After traveling eastward through Ballston on the present route of Fairfax Drive, the line reached Clarendon, where it branched.
The North Arlington branch continued to follow the route of Fairfax Drive (now partially replaced by Clarendon Boulevard) through and past Clarendon. The branch then traveled downhill on the present route of Fairfax Drive along the north side of Rocky Run, which U.S. Route 50 now covers. Approaching Rosslyn, the branch turned north when meeting the Nauck line at N. Lynn Street, joined the East Arlington branch, and ended near the Aqueduct Bridge at the railroad's Rosslyn terminal.
Beginning in 1906, the North and East Arlington branches and the Nauck line connected at the Rosslyn terminal to the Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad (later the Great Falls Division of the W&OD Railway), which crossed the Potomac River into Georgetown on the Aqueduct Bridge. In its later years, the North Arlington branch connected in Rosslyn to the streetcars of the Capital Traction and (later) Capital Transit Companies, which crossed the Potomac on the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
After leaving Clarendon, the South Arlington branch followed Washington Boulevard and Southgate Drive, meeting the Nauck line at Hatfield Junction, the East Arlington branch at Mount Vernon Junction (which received its name because the East Arlington branch was a part of the Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Railway when the South Arlington branch first reached it), and the Washington-Alexandria-Mount Vernon main line at Arlington Junction. After entering the tracks of the Washington-Alexandria-Mount Vernon line, trolleys of the South Arlington branch (some of which had originated in Fairfax City) crossed the Potomac River on the Long Bridge and, later, on the Highway Bridge to terminate in downtown Washington, D.C. at a station located at 1204 N. Pennsylvania Avenue that extended along Pennsylvania Avenue NW and D Street NW from 12th Street, NW, to 13 1/2 Street, NW, near the site of the present Federal Triangle Metro station and on the opposite side of 12th Street from the Post Office building.
I-66 and the Custis Trail now travel from Lee Highway (U.S. Route 29) in East Falls Church to Ballston on or near the Fairfax line's right of way along the former route of Fairfax Drive. Metrorail's Orange Line now follows the route of Fairfax line and its North Arlington branch from Lee Highway in East Falls Church to N. Lynn Street in Rosslyn.
Stations
The stations of the Fairfax line were (with locations of sites in 2008):
Remnants of the Fairfax line
North Arlington branch
Stations
The stations of the North Arlington branch (Clarendon-Fairfax branch of Washington-Virginia Railway) were (with locations of sites in 2008):
Remnants of North Arlington branch
South Arlington branch
Stations
The stations of the South Arlington branch (Clarendon Fairfax Branch of Washington-Virginia Railway) with locations of sites in 2008) were: