George Washington Memorial Parkway

Travel to George Washington's Mount Vernon from Washington had long been seen as a patriotic duty, and in the late 19th century visitors often went by boat through Alexandria. In 1887, Alexandria business leaders formed the Mount Vernon Avenue Association to press for a federal road to the estate, envisioned as a park-like boulevard running south from Alexandria through rural woodlands and scenic views, with landscaped pavilions and monuments interpreting the history, industry, and people of the 13 original states. That plan was frustrated when a trolley line was built just before the 20th century, providing inexpensive travel to Mount Vernon through downtown Alexandria. The proposal lay dormant until the 1920s, when a highway from Arlington's Memorial Bridge to Mount Vernon was planned as Mount Vernon Boulevard. Of two possible routes, an inland ridge and the Potomac's edge, the riverside route was chosen using the former trolley right-of-way. In 1932, the project was revised to honor the 200th birthday of the nation's first president and renamed the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Within Alexandria, the parkway follows the line of historic Washington Street, laid out in 1749, and in 1946 the City Council created the Old and Historic Alexandria District, America's third municipal historic district, partly to preserve the parkway's commemorative character.

Alexandria, Virginia · United States