Growth in Northern VA 1984-2011: NASA satellite images

[michgc]

Gosh, I always write Tyson's Corner.

[saganista]

Originally Posted by GustavoFring

As for the trips outside the geographic area of the beltway back then, nothing really existed,

There was quite a bit more than nothing outside the Beltway "back then", it simply wasn't built up the way it is today. Oakton, Fairfax City, Pender, Sterling, Chantilly, Centreville, The Plains, Manassas, Ashburn, Leesburg, Gilbert's Corner, and let's not forget Willard and Conklin, the two towns that were bulldozed out of existence in order to create Dulles Airport. They were mostly sleepy little towns centered around farming and agriculture of one sort of another.

Originally Posted by GustavoFring

...which makes things like the Original Herndon & Vienna special. They were originally country towns/homes for city workers looking to escape the cities.

Vienna was incorporated as a town in 1890, at which time it had a population of about 300 people. It had existed however since long before the Civil War, prominently including broom and plough factories at that time. City workers lived in the city.

Originally Posted by GustavoFring

They had spur railroads that went out to them and are now only rail-trails and historic districts (ever been stopped by that damn bike trail on 123 through vienna, that was the spur to herndon for rich city folks). Thats the reason Vienna and Herndon are special in this area, they existed before the strip mall paradise that sprung up in the last 30 years.

Hmmm. That would be the W&OD Trail and the light at 123 is synchronized with the lights on either side of it at Center and Park Streets. The railroad of the same name did run to Herndon, Sterling, Ashburn, Leesburg, and beyond, but passenger service on the line -- important during WWII with its gas rationing -- ended in 1951. Important prior to WWII were the trolley lines. They reached Vienna in 1904 and Fairfax City in 1905. To appreciate the impact, consider that before the trolley, the only way (other than horseback) to get from DC to Fairfax City was to take the Southern Railroad to Fairfax Station, then travel by intermittent stagecoach to Fairfax City. There were no surfaced roads in Fairfax County at the time, and heavy rains often left the roads impassable for days. On the trolley, you could reliably get from Fairfax City to 12th Street & Pennsylvania Avenue NW in an hour. The trolleys were important for mail and freight service as well. Not long after the trolley stop in McLean came into being, all of what is now Chesterbrook had become black-owned dairy farms, and the trolley meant that fresh milk would be available to city families on a daily basis. It was a boon. Automobiles and the Depression would eventually kill the trolleys though. They ceased operations in 1939.

The explosion of people in Vienna came during the 1950's and 60's. WWII and its aftermath had packed first Arlington and then Falls Church. Next, it was Vienna's turn. The town soon had to relocate its "downtown" area from Church Street to a newly-widened Maple Avenue. There were no trolleys and no trains anymore. There were cars and there was 123, Lee Highway, Route-50, and the GW and Spout Run Parkways. That's how people got to their jobs in DC.