This article deals with the streets and

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...

s of

Arlington County, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...

, a suburb of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Overview

In 2009, the county maintains of roads. , the total mileage of (primary) state highways in Arlington County was 39.66 (59 km). Arlington County is one of only two counties in Virginia which maintain its own roads (with the exception of primary state highways, including U.S. Highways and Interstates), the other being

Henrico County Henrico County , officially the County of Henrico, is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 334,389 making it the fifth-most populous county in Virginia. Henrico County is incl ...

outside the State Capital of Richmond. Because of this special status, there are no secondary state roads and, therefore, most roads are unnumbered. This status originated due to the existence of county highway departments in Arlington prior to the creation of the state transportation agency which is now the VDOT in 1927, and the assumption of local roads control by that agency in 1932. The control of the roads system is considered a powerful advantage for community urban planners, who can require developers to contribute to funding needed for road needs serving their projects. Although the streets of Arlington County are not laid out on a grid plan, its local streets follow the

Arlington County, Virginia, street-naming system This article details the street-naming system of Arlington County, Virginia in the United States. Although the streets of Arlington County are not laid out on a grid plan, its local streets follow sequential numbered or alphabetic patterns tha ...

: a system of

sequential In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called th ...

numbered or alphabetic patterns that are both

rational Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reasons. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an abi ...

and provide address numbering information.

Interstate highways

Interstate 66

The configuration of

Interstate 66 Interstate 66 (I-66) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. It runs from an interchange with I-81 near Middletown, Virginia, on its western end to an interchange with U.S. Route 29 (US 29) in Washing ...

through Arlington (first proposed in 1956) has long been controversial. The Arlington Coalition on Transportation (ACT) filed a lawsuit in

Federal District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

in 1971 opposing the portion of the project through Arlington. The group objected to that urban segment due to concerns over

air quality Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference aris ...

and community cohesion changes. In 1972 the U.S.

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in case citations, 4th Cir.) is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Maryland ...

ruled in favor of ACT, technically blocking any construction. '' Arlington Coalition on Transportation v. Volpe'', 458 F.2d 1323 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 1000 (1972). The impasse was eventually broken when the parties agreed on experts to conduct

and

studies for the

Virginia Department of Transportation The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is the agency of the state government responsible for transportation in the state of Virginia in the United States. VDOT is headquartered at the Virginia Department of Highways Building in downtown ...

, then known as the Virginia Department of Highways; then, Secretary of Transportation Coleman personally intervened in 1976 with negotiations to reach a compromise by reducing the highway capacity, making I-66 HOV during parts of the day, and including a subway route in I-66's median.C. Michael Hogan and Harry Seidman, ''Air Quality and Acoustics Analysis of Proposed I-66 through Arlington, Virginia'', ESL Inc. Technical Document T1026, Sunnyvale, Calif. (1971) The eastbound traffic lanes of I-66 in Arlington are presently restricted to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) traffic and motorcycles during morning peak hours, while the westbound lanes are restricted to this traffic during the evening peak hours. Due to very frequent traffics jams in the four lane section of I-66, many people in the region have advocated widening I-66, although the County Boar

and many local residents continue to oppose it.

Interstate 395

Begun during World War II to serve the Pentagon, Interstate 395 (District of Columbia-Virginia), Interstate 395 (I-395) (named the Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway) bisects Arlington as it travels southwest/northeast between the 14th Street Bridge and Alexandria. Until it closed in 1968, the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad's

freight train Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) haul ...

s regularly backed up rush hour traffic and collided with automobiles and trucks as they crossed the highway at grade on tracks guarded by flashing signal lights and ringing bells, but no crossing gates. At the time, this was the only at-grade intersection of a railroad and a

limited-access A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway, expressway, limited access freeway, and partial controlled access highway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which ...

federal highway. Heavily congested during peak hours, the

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

now contains two central lanes that operate as high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes during rush hours while separated by

Jersey barrier A Jersey barrier, Jersey wall, or Jersey bump is a modular concrete or plastic barrier employed to separate lanes of traffic. It is designed to minimize vehicle damage in cases of incidental contact while still preventing vehicle crossovers resu ...

s from the road's regular traffic lanes. Although express Metrobuses often travel in the HOV lanes,

Metrorail METRORail is the light rail system in Houston, Texas (United States). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . METRORail ranks as the second most-traveled light rail system in the Southern United States and the 12th ...

does not travel along its corridor.

Proposed interstates

Interstate 595

Interstate 595 was a proposed upgrade to U.S. 1 (

Jefferson Davis Highway The Jefferson Davis Highway, also known as the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway, was a planned transcontinental highway in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s that began in Arlington, Virginia, and extended south and west to San Diego, Cal ...

) in Crystal City.

Interstate 266

Interstate 266 was a proposed loop route from Interstate 66 between Arlington and Washington, D.C., that would have crossed the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

on a new bridge.

Arterial routes

The street-naming system does not apply to the main

arteries An artery (plural arteries) () is a blood vessel in humans and most animals that takes blood away from the heart to one or more parts of the body (tissues, lungs, brain etc.). Most arteries carry oxygenated blood; the two exceptions are the pu ...

(none of which are called "streets"). The north-south arteries from east to west include

US 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making ...

(

), Walter Reed Drive,

Glebe Road State Route 120 (SR 120) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known as Glebe Road, the state highway runs from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Crystal City north to SR 123 at the Chain Bridge. SR 120 is a partial circumf ...

, George Mason Drive and Carlin Springs Road. The east-west arteries from north to south include Williamsburg Boulevard, Yorktown Boulevard, Lee Highway (

U.S. Route 29 U.S. Route 29 (US 29) is a north–south United States highway that runs for from Pensacola, Florida to the western suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland in the Southern United States, connecting the Florida Panhandle to the Baltimore-Washington me ...

), Wilson Boulevard, U.S. Route 50 (

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 ...

), State Route 244 ( Columbia Pike) and Four Mile Run Drive. Another main artery, Washington Boulevard, previously a cow path, runs both east-west and north-south. Through most of Arlington it runs east-west between Wilson Boulevard and Lee Highway. When it reaches the east side of the county, it turns south to avoid

Fort Myer Fort Myer is the previous name used for a U.S. Army post next to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, and across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Founded during the American Civil War as Fort Cass and Fort Whipple, ...

, crosses US 50 and becomes State Route 27, a

, before crossing SR 244 and intersecting with I-395. It then turns back northeast and runs past

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a meton ...

to end at the D.C. boundary just before the

George Washington Memorial Parkway The George Washington Memorial Parkway, colloquially the G.W. Parkway, is a parkway that runs along the south bank of the Potomac River from Mount Vernon, Virginia, northwest to McLean, Virginia, and is maintained by the National Park Service ( ...

Parkways

Arlington has two

scenic parkways maintained by the U.S.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

which also serve as major commuter routes.

George Washington Memorial Parkway

The

runs northwest-southeast along Arlington County's entire

boundary with Washington, D.C., except for a small section traversing Columbia Island which is part of the District of Columbia.

Spout Run Parkway

The Spout Run Parkway is a spur from the George Washington Parkway providing access to Cherrydale, Lee Highway ( U.S. Highway 29), and, indirectly,

Bridges

Arlington County is connected to Washington, D.C. by several road bridges across the

. From upstream to the southeast, they are the

Chain Bridge A chain bridge is a historic form of suspension bridge for which chains or eyebars were used instead of wire ropes to carry the bridge deck. A famous example is the Széchenyi Chain Bridge in Budapest. Construction types are, as for other suspen ...

( State Route 123), the Francis Scott Key Bridge (

), the

Theodore Roosevelt Bridge The Theodore Roosevelt Bridge (also known as the Teddy Roosevelt Bridge or the Roosevelt Bridge) is a bridge crossing the Potomac River which connects Washington, D.C., with the Commonwealth of Virginia. The bridge crosses over Theodore Roosevelt ...

(

/ U.S. Route 50), the

Arlington Memorial Bridge The Arlington Memorial Bridge is a Neoclassical masonry, steel, and stone arch bridge with a central bascule (or drawbridge) that crosses the Potomac River at Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. First proposed in 1886, the brid ...

, and the 14th Street Bridge complex ( Interstate 395/

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Streets And Highways Of Arlington County, Virginia Arlington Transportation in Arlington County, Virginia