During the Cold War, a ring of Nike anti-aircraft missile sites defended the nation’s capital, echoing the perimeter of forts that had protected it during the Civil War. One of the three Nike complexes in Fairfax County had its launch control equipment just east of here, while the missiles themselves stood to the west on above-ground launchers. The U.S. Army operated this battery from 1954 to 1959, and the Army National Guard operated it from 1959 to 1963. Built to oppose Soviet air attack, this complex and those in Great Falls and Lorton were three of thirteen Nike sites surrounding Washington and Baltimore.
