This article details the street-naming system of

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 ...

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 ar ...

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 ...

. Although the streets of Arlington County are not laid out on a grid plan, its local streets follow

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

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and provide address numbering information.

History of the system

A numbered and alphabetical street-naming scheme suggests that Arlington is or once was laid out on a continuous rectilinear grid plan, which in many parts of the County it is not (although very few parts of the county are laid out using the cul-de-sac type development which is more common in the outer

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suburbs). Originally, the various communities in the county had independent street-naming conventions. However, when county officials asked the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

to place the entire county in a single "Arlington, Virginia" postal area, the USPS refused to do so until the county had a unified addressing system, which the county developed in 1932. For that reason, and also because Arlington contains a number of locations that interrupt the road grid network (including military facilities, parks, golf courses, and limited-access highways), it is common for streets to terminate and continue later on in another location. Arlington now has a policy of adding to the street grid when feasible as part of new development—for example, connections for Quinn Street and Troy Street were recently added to the Master Transportation Plan between Wilson and Clarendon Boulevards.

Specifics of the system

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 ...

( U.S. Route 50) bisects Arlington County into northern and southern sections, except for a few streets between Fort Myer Military Reservation and Arlington Boulevard, which are designated north even though they are south of Arlington Boulevard. East–west streets are designated by an ordinal number followed by a designation as either a street, road, place, or avenue, and a north or south designation. The numbers begin on either side of Arlington Boulevard and increase moving away from it. Therefore, 1st Street North is immediately north of Arlington Boulevard and 1st Street South is immediately south of it. North–south streets are named and alphabetized (through first letter only) starting at 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 ...

in the east. Progressing westward, the alphabetizing sequence is: # One-syllable names (Ball Street to Wayne Street) # Two-syllable names (Adams to Woodrow) # Three-syllable names (Abingdon to Yucatán) # Four-syllable names (Arizona is the only street in this sequence) Arlington's local numbered and named streets are not through streets, except for a few streets in North Arlington, and thus each number or name can appear multiple times at multiple locations in the county but always according to the grid. For example, there are several 12th Streets South or North Kensington Streets in various areas of the county. In cases where more names are needed to avoid confusion in areas of denser street construction, numbered (east–west) streets are first designated "street", then "road," then "place," and in one instance, "avenue".The sole numbered avenue is 21st Avenue North. For example, 37th Street North, 37th Road North, and 37th Place North are all in the same general area. Named (north–south) local streets follow rules regarding initial letter and syllable number but there can be multiple street names with the same initial letter number of syllables, almost all ending with "street". For example, North Kenilworth Street, North Kensington Street, and North Kentucky Street are all in the same area.

Exceptions to the system

Major arteries or historical roads are exempt from the naming and numbering system. Named streets with the designation "road," "pike," or "highway" instead of "street" usually predate the system and follow early winding routes. "Boulevards" and "drives" are generally major thoroughfares with historic names. Boulevards usually run east–west and drives, which were constructed on former trolley lines, run north–south but are designated as north and south only when they appear on both sides of Arlington Boulevard. Notable exceptions include: * Arlington Ridge Road *Army Navy Drive *

Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

Avenue *Columbia Pike * Nelly Custis Drive *

Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first a ...

Drive *

George Mason George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of the three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including ...

Drive *

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, ...

Drive *

Glebe 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 ...

Road * Richmond Highway (formerly Jefferson Davis Highway) * Lee Highway *

Military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

Road * Pershing Drive * Quaker Lane *

Walter Reed Walter Reed (September 13, 1851 – November 22, 1902) was a U.S. Army physician who in 1901 led the team that confirmed the theory of Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay that yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito species rather than ...

Drive

Address numbers in the system

Address numbers can be determined from the numbers or names of intersecting streets. Addresses on north–south routes, including exceptions from the numbering and naming system, follow the numbers of intersecting (or implied intersections of) numbered streets. For example, 2005 South Glebe Road would lie just beyond the intersection of South Glebe Road and 20th Street South. Addresses on east–west, including exceptions from the numbering and naming system, are based on the intersecting (or implied intersections of) named streets with each letter/syllable combination representing 100 address numbers. The chart below shows the block numbers on east–west streets. Full-Lot houses often skip 4 numbers in between houses, and town homes generally skip two; while the opposite side of the street is offset by one number, so that one side can be even, and one odd. Arlington County Street Numbering System

Arlington County Street Numbering System

Block numbers on east–west streets

* 200: Ball * 300: Clark * 400: (Dale) * 500: Eads * 600: Fern * 700: Grant * 800: Hayes * 900: Ives *1000: Joyce *1100: Kent *1200: Lynn *1300: Meade *1400: Nash *1500: Oak *1600: Pierce *1700: Queen *1800: Rolfe *1900: Scott *2000: Taft *2100: Uhle *2200: Veitch *2300: Wayne *2400: Adams *2500: Barton *2600: Cleveland *2700: Danville *2800: Edgewood *2900: Fillmore *3000: Garfield *3100: Highland *3200: Irving *3300: Jackson *3400: Kenmore *3500: Lincoln *3600: Monroe *3700: Nelson *3800: Oakland *3900: Pollard *4000: Quincy *4100: Randolph *4200: Stafford *4300: Taylor *4400: Utah *4500: Vermont *4600: Wakefield *4700: Abingdon *4800: Buchanan *4900: Columbus *5000: Dinwiddie *5100: Edison *5200: Frederick *5300: Greenbrier *5400: Harrison *5500: Illinois *5600: Jefferson *5700: Kensington *5800: Lexington *5900: Madison *6000: Nottingham *6100: Ohio *6200: Powhatan *6300: Quantico *6400: Roosevelt *6500: Sycamore *6600: Tuckahoe *6700: Underwood *6800: Van Buren *6900: Westmoreland *7000: Arizona Addresses on the south and west (left) sides of the streets are even-numbered. Below is a complete list of named (north–south) streets within the system.

List of named (north–south) streets within the system

This list includes only those streets which appear as part of the naming system, excluding historical exceptions, and major boulevards or drives.

References

{{reflist

External links

Arlington County's GIS Mapping Center maps of ArlingtonArlington County StreetsArlington County Virginia Directory of Street names, showing old and new names after 1934 street-name changes campaign
Street Naming System Arlington County, Virginia