The Four Mile Run Trail is a 7-mile long, paved shared use path in Arlington County and Falls Church. It runs along Four Mile Run from Benjamin Banneker Park in Falls Church [1] [2] to the Mount Vernon Trail near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where Four Mile Run empties into the Potomac River. The trail runs roughly parallel to parts of the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail as it follows Four Mile Run, sometimes on the other side of the stream. [3]
The trail opened on September 4, 1967 as a four-mile, unpaved trail between Roosevelt Street and the Columbia Pike. [4]
The trail was the brainchild of Arlington County Board member Thomas Richards, who had been elected in 1964. When he was snowed in at New York's LaGuardia Airport shortly after being elected he used the time, and a AAA road map of Arlington, to sketch out a trail system along Four Mile Run. [5] He saw it as part of a network of trails - including those along Lubber Run, Long Branch and from the Claremont School - stretching from Falls Church to Route 1 on land the county already controlled. The trail could not connect to the George Washington Parkway because the railroad trestle then over Four Mile Run near Potomac yard left no room between the supports. In early 1966 a proposal for the trail was approved by the County Board and later that year Arlington County was one of 12 urban areas to receive a grant from the Department of the Interior as a demonstration of urban trails, the first such grants ever given. [6] [7] The Four Mile Run Trail was the first of these trails built, making it the nation's first shared use path built with federal funds. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall had created the program in hopes that it would build support for trails legislation he was supporting. That legislation later became the National Trail System Act of 1968. The trail was built adjacent to an existing hiking trail and the still extant W&OD railroad tracks. [8]
In the following years, the trail was paved and expanded. By mid-1968, the trail had been extended south to Walter Reed Drive, though the bike trail ended at Columbia Pike, and north to N. Van Buren Street in the Falls Church section of Benjamin Banneker Park. [9] By 1971, most sections of the trail were paved, but it still had many low-water crossings and cinder-surfaced sections. [10] By 1976, it was extended to Shirlington. [11] [12] At Shirlington, it crossed I-95 on the Shirlington Overpass which had been opened in 1972. By 1977 it was extended west of Broad Street in Falls Church (along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) right-of-way). In 1980, as part of the construction of seven bridges across Four Mile Run - for Route 1, the Potomac Yard railroad, the main rail line and the George Washington Parkway - the Army Corps of Engineers built a section of the Four Mile Run Trail beneath the bridges from Route 1 to the Mount Vernon Trail. Later that spring, the gap between the new section and I-95 was opened. [13]
In 1981-82, the section of trail near Brandymore Castle in Arlington was rebuilt in conjunction with the construction of I-66. The section of trail from the point where Four Mile Run emerges from under I-66 in Arlington County to the bridge over Four Mile Run in Banneker Park then became part of both trails. In the future, Arlington County would like to reroute the W&OD Trail to a separate route outside of the park, thus reducing the amount of joined trail. [14]
In 2009, a trail extension was completed near Shirlington that not only linked the end of the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail with the Four Mile Run Trail, but also allowed trail users to pass under the Shirley Highway (Interstate 395) and W. Glebe Road without having to ride on-street in Shirlington and Alexandria. [15] [16] An underpass was originally to be built as part of the 1970's Four Mile Run project that built the I-95 to Mount Vernon Trail section, but it was not built at that time. [17] [18]
Shirlington is an unincorporated urban area, officially called an "urban village", in the southern part of Arlington County, Virginia, United States, adjacent to the Fairlington area. The word "Shirlington" is a combination of "Shirley" and "Arlington".
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is located in the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland. The park was established in 1961 as a National Monument by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the neglected remains of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and many of its original structures.
The Potomac Heritage Trail, also known as the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail or the PHT, is a designated National Scenic Trail corridor spanning parts of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States that will connect various trails and historic sites in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. The trail network includes 710 miles (1,140 km) of existing and planned sections, tracing the natural, historical, and cultural features of the Potomac River corridor, the upper Ohio River watershed in Pennsylvania and western Maryland, and a portion of the Rappahannock River watershed in Virginia. The trail is managed by the National Park Service and is one of three National Trails that are official NPS units.
The Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway, often shortened to Shirley Highway, consists of a 17.3-mile (27.8 km) portion of Interstates 95 and 395 in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. Shirley Highway was the first limited-access freeway in Virginia. Begun in 1941, the road was completed from U.S. Route 1 in Colchester, Virginia, just north of Woodbridge, to the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River between Virginia and Washington, D.C. in 1952.
The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad was an intrastate short-line railroad located in Northern Virginia, United States. The railroad was a successor to the bankrupt Washington and Old Dominion Railway and to several earlier railroads, the first of which began operating in 1859. The railroad closed in 1968.
The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park is a linear regional park in Northern Virginia. The park's primary feature is the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Trail, an asphalt-surfaced paved rail trail that runs through densely populated urban and suburban communities as well as through rural areas. Most of the trail travels on top of the rail bed of the former Washington and Old Dominion Railroad, which closed in 1968.
Great Falls Park is a small National Park Service (NPS) site in Virginia, United States. Situated on 800 acres (3.2 km2) along the banks of the Potomac River in northern Fairfax County, the park is a disconnected but integral part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The Great Falls of the Potomac River are near the northern boundary of the park, as are the remains of the Patowmack Canal, the first canal in the United States that used locks to raise and lower boats.
The Mount Vernon Trail (MVT) is an 18-mile (29 km) long shared use path that travels along the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Northern Virginia between Rosslyn and George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. The trail connects the easternmost portions of Arlington County, the City of Alexandria, and Fairfax County, and travels mostly on dedicated trail with a small portion on city streets. As part of U.S. Bike Route 1, the Potomac Heritage Trail and the East Coast Greenway, the MVT opened in April 1972 as a gravel path and was subsequently expanded and paved.
Four Mile Run is a 9.4-mile-long (15.1 km) stream in Northern Virginia that starts near Interstate 66, at Gordon Avenue in Fairfax County and proceeds southeast through Falls Church to Arlington County in the U.S. state of Virginia. Most of the stretch is parkland and is paralleled by two paved non-motorized transport and recreational trails, the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail and the Four Mile Run Trail.
The Custis Trail is a hilly 4.5 miles (7.2 km)-long shared use path in Arlington County, Virginia. The asphalt-paved trail travels along Interstate 66 (I-66) between Rosslyn and the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail at Bon Air Park.
The Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) is a 7.04-mile (11.33 km), shared-use rail trail that runs from Georgetown in Washington, D.C., to Bethesda, Maryland. An extension of the trail from Bethesda to Silver Spring along a route formerly known as the Georgetown Branch Trail is being built as part of the Purple Line light rail project.
The Northern Virginia trolleys were the network of electric streetcars that moved people around the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., from 1892 to 1941. They consisted of six lines operated by as many as three separate companies connecting Rosslyn, Great Falls, Bluemont, Mount Vernon, Fairfax City, Camp Humphries, and Nauck across the Potomac River to the District of Columbia.
The Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad (GF&OD) was an interurban trolley line that ran in Northern Virginia during the early 20th century.
Difficult Run is a 15.9-mile-long (25.6 km) tributary stream of the Potomac River in Northern Virginia in the United States. The area has had many historical uses dating back to the early 1800s. Today, the area is used recreationally by visitors interested in the watershed's variety of options including hiking, biking, fishing, boating, climbing, and bird watching. The wildlife at Difficult Run is vast as 163 different species can be seen depending on the season. There are 41 different soil types found on the trail and alongside the stream. The stream is part of the greater 57.7- square-mile Drainage basin, or watershed, located in the north-central portion of Fairfax County and drains directly to the Potomac River.
Countryside is a census-designated place in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 census was 10,072. It is located about 27 miles (43 km) northwest of Washington and is bounded by the Potomac River to the north, and by Route 7 to the south. Located in eastern Loudoun County, it is about 9 miles (14 km) north of Washington Dulles International Airport. It is bordered by the community of Cascades to the east and by Dulles Town Center to the south, across Route 7.
Little Falls Branch, a 3.8-mile-long (6.1 km) tributary stream of the Potomac River, is located in Montgomery County, Maryland. In the 19th century, the stream was also called Powder Mill Branch. It drains portions of Bethesda, Somerset, Friendship Heights, and Washington, D.C., flows under the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O), and empties into the Potomac at Little Falls rapids, which marks the upper end of the tidal Potomac.
The Bluemont Junction Trail is a 1.2-mile (1.9 km) asphalt-paved rail trail in Arlington County, Virginia, United States, that the Arlington County government constructed along a former branch of the defunct Washington and Old Dominion Railroad. The shared use path travels southwest from Ballston through Bluemont Junction Park to Bluemont Junction. The trail connects Ballston to the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail and the Four Mile Run Trail in and near Bluemont Park.
Nauck is a neighborhood in the southern part of Arlington County, Virginia, known locally as Green Valley. It is bordered by Four Mile Run and Shirlington to the south, Douglas Park to the west, I-395 to the east, and Columbia Heights and the Army-Navy Country Club to the north. The southeastern corner of the neighborhood borders the City of Alexandria.
The Rock Creek Trails are a series of trails through the Rock Creek valley and along the Potomac River in Washington, DC and Montgomery County, MD. The main route extends 22 miles from Lake Needwood in Maryland to the Inlet Bridge in Washington, DC, with a loop in the north part of Rock Creek Park and other trails through the Klingle Valley, Turkey Branch Valley and along the North Branch of Rock Creek. There are three separate trails that make up the main Rock Creek Trail route and others that connect to it. Along the Potomac River from Arlington Memorial Bridge to Rock Creek is a section sometimes called the Shoreline Trail.