State Route 120 (SR 120) is a primary

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

in the U.S. state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

. Known as Glebe Road, the state highway runs from

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 ...

(US 1) in Crystal City north to SR 123 at 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 ...

. SR 120 is a partial circumferential highway in

Arlington County 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 ...

that connects the southeastern and northwestern corners of the county with several

urban village In urban planning and design, an urban village is an urban development typically characterized by medium-density housing, mixed use zoning, good public transit and an emphasis on pedestrianization and public space. Contemporary urban village id ...

s along its crescent-shaped path, including Ballston. The state highway also connects all of the major highways in Virginia that radiate from

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, including Interstate 395, I-66,

US 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic ...

, and US 29. SR 120 is a part of the National Highway System for its entire length.

Route description

SR 120 begins at an intersection with US 1 (Jefferson Davis Highway) at the south end of Crystal City, just north of the city of Alexandria––though Glebe Road actually continues three blocks east of US 1 where it ends at Potomac Avenue. The state highway heads west as a four-lane

divided highway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

through the Arlington County sewage treatment facility. West of the facility, SR 120 parallels the

Four Mile Run Trail The Four Mile Run Trail is a 7-mile long, paved shared use path in Arlington County, Virginia. It runs along Four Mile Run from Benjamin Banneker Park in Falls Church to the Mount Vernon Trail near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, w ...

and

Four Mile Run Four Mile Run is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 15, 2011 stream in Northern Virginia that starts near Interstate 66, at Gordon Avenue in Fairfax County and proc ...

, both to the south, and passes to the south of the Arlington Ridge community. At the point the old alignment of SR 120, also named Glebe Road, crosses Four Mile Run into Alexandria, the state highway veers northwest away from the stream and meets I-395 (Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway) at a

partial cloverleaf interchange A partial cloverleaf interchange or parclo is a modification of a cloverleaf interchange. The design has been well received, and has since become one of the most popular freeway-to- arterial interchange designs in North America. It has also be ...

north of

Shirlington 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" (from the ...

. North of the freeway, SR 120 passes between the historic

Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is an historic African Methodist Episcopal Zion church located at 2704 24th Rd. South in Arlington, Virginia. It was built in 1922, and is a one-story, three bay by six bay, brick church building on ...

and Army Navy Country Club. North of its oblique intersection with Walter Reed Drive, the state highway passes through the commercial center of Westmont, where the highway intersects SR 244 (Columbia Pike). North of Westmont, SR 120 has a partial cloverleaf interchange with US 50 (Arlington Boulevard) adjacent to the Cathedral of Saint Thomas More. SR 120 continues north onto Ballston, where the highway expands to six lanes at Quincy Street. The state highway passes by

Ballston Quarter Ballston Quarter, formerly known as Ballston Common Mall, originally opened as Parkington Shopping Center, was one of the first major suburban shopping centers in the Washington, D.C., area. It opened in 1951 and was the nation's first shopping ce ...

and the adjacent

MedStar Capitals Iceplex MedStar Capitals Iceplex is the practice arena of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League. The highest ice rink above street-level in the United States, it is located on the eighth floor atop the parking garage adjoining the Ballsto ...

, practice rink of the

Washington Capitals The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, a ...

. SR 120 veers north at Wilson Boulevard and passes by the Arlington Center of

Northern Virginia Community College Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC; informally known as NOVA) is a public community college composed of six campuses and four centers in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. Northern Virginia Community College is the third- ...

at Fairfax Drive, which heads east as SR 237 toward Clarendon and west as ramps to and from I-66 toward Falls Church. The state highway runs concurrently with SR 237 for two blocks north to Washington Boulevard, onto which SR 237 heads west toward

Falls Church Falls Church is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,658. Falls Church is included in the Washington metropolitan area. Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Churc ...

. Just north of Washington Boulevard, SR 120 has a partial interchange with I-66 that allows access to and from the direction of Washington and where the highway crosses the

Custis Trail The Custis Trail is a hilly -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 (W&OD Trail) at Bon Air Park.Route of ...

. SR 120 leaves Ballston as a four-lane divided highway that passes by The Glebe House and intersects US 29 (

Lee Highway The Lee Highway was a national auto trail in the United States, connecting New York City and San Francisco, California, via the South and Southwest. After receiving a letter on January 15, 1919, from Dr. Samuel Myrtle Johnson of Roswell, New M ...

). The state highway has an oblique intersection with SR 309 (Old Dominion Drive) on an overpass of Yorktown Boulevard adjacent to

Marymount University Marymount University is a private Catholic university with its main campus in Arlington, Virginia. Marymount offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. It has approximately 3,897 students enrolled, representing approximately 45 states an ...

. At Williamsburg Boulevard, SR 120 veers northeast to parallel the Arlington– Fairfax county line. At the top of its descent to the Potomac River, the state highway has a partial cloverleaf interchange with Military Road, a residential street, and reduces to a two-lane undivided road. The highway has a sweeping curve to the north and passes below 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 ( ...

immediately before its northern terminus at SR 123 (Chain Bridge Road), which connects SR 120 with the Parkway. The road continues straight as SR 123 to the

, which crosses the Potomac River just below Little Falls to an intersection with Canal Road and the

Clara Barton Parkway Clara Barton Parkway is an automobile parkway in the U.S. state of Maryland and the District of Columbia. The highway runs from MacArthur Boulevard in Carderock, Maryland, east to Canal Road at the Chain Bridge in Washington. Clara Barton Pa ...

in Washington a short distance east of the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle (Washington, D.C.), Logan Circle, Jefferson Memoria ...

–

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

boundary.

History

A road along the present path of SR 120 has existed at least since the 1750s. This road, linking Alexandria to Great Falls, was first known as the "Road to the Falls." It took its present name from the nearby

glebe lands Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

that were used to support the

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

of the colonial Fairfax Parish of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

; those lands also gave their name to the historic Glebe House, which was built in the 19th century on the former glebe property and sits near what is now SR 120. SR 120 appeared in its current form in the 1940 renumbering, replacing a small part of SR 9, which itself had replaced the original designation of SR 25 in the 1933 renumbering. The majority of SR 25 became SR 123 in 1940. Another SR 120 was designated in Franklin County in the 1933 renumbering, which consisted of two sections. One was the present-day SR 739 from its intersection with the present-day US 220 at

Boones Mill Boones Mill is a town in Franklin County, Virginia, United States. The population was 239 in 2018, down from 285 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Boones Mill was incorporated in 1927. It was ...

westward for . The other was the present-day SR 602 from its intersection with SR 40 near Ferrum northward for . Glebe Road intersects through several areas that have seen an increase in pedestrian traffic since the 1970s. Arlington County and local citizens started discussions on improving pedestrian safety in 2003; the implementation of these started in 2013 and is scheduled to complete in 2014.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{AttachedKML, display=title,inline
Virginia Highways Project: VA 120

Why Is It Named Glebe Road?

120 120 may refer to: *120 (number), the number * AD 120, a year in the 2nd century AD *120 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *120 film, a film format for still photography * ''120'' (film), a 2008 film * 120 (MBTA bus) * 120 (New Jersey bus) * 120 (Ken ...

State Route 120