Query for anyone with an old Fairfax County map

[1995hoo]

If anyone has an old map of Fairfax County, Virginia, I'd be grateful if you could answer this query. Once upon a time there was an overpass that crossed the Beltway a short distance east of Van Dorn Street and a short distance west of where the Eisenhower Connector exit is now. Can anyone tell me what road crossed that overpass? I seem to recall that it was closed due to something to do with the Metrorail Blue Line construction, but that may be mistaken memory on my part; either way, the overpass has long since been torn down.

Reason I ask is that I was discussing traffic patterns with a neighbor who thought I was crazy when I said there used to be another way across the Beltway. My recollection isn't great because I believe the overpass closed before I got my driver's license in the late 1980s and because at the time we lived closer to Fairfax City such that we didn't go through the area of this overpass all that much. A Google search proved fruitless.

Thanks in advance to anyone who knows.

[NE2]

Bush Hill Drive:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=38.79902,-77.12214&z=16&t=T
http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=2.06333543745594E-05&lat=38.8004486049574&lon=-77.1218065636159&year=1979

[froggie]

An overpass did exist in that area until at least 1988, but was never used for vehicles (contrary to the map NE2 posted).  There were only unpaved trail connections on either side.  The underpass at Clermont (now the Eisenhower Connector) was built as part of the original Beltway construction, but there wasn't much on the Alexandria side until the late 1970s, and as far as I know this connection was taken out with the Blue Line construction and not reinstated until the Connector interchange was built in the 1990s.

[1995hoo]

Thanks to both of you. Back in the early 1980s I had no real way to get back there because my mother and father weren't going to take a side trip just to let me see where a road went, and at the time I wasn't all that interested in that overpass because I wouldn't have figured it would be torn down. So I guess both my neighbor and I were right: There was another way across the Beltway, but it wasn't open to vehicular traffic. The satellite view from 1979 in the second link above seems to make it pretty clear that wasn't a real road. Funny, you can see the office building on Eisenhower that is now the "Victory Center" building (lone building on the north side surrounded by car parks that seem way too big for the amount of space).

Interesting to see the old satellite views of the area. I had not been down to this part of the county as much when I was a kid and I remember being a bit surprised at how Kingstowne had seemingly appeared out of nowhere while I was away at college. So thanks for that second link in particular.

[Mapmikey]

The 1964 view is more instructive

It clearly shows the overpass of the Bush Hill Dr path over the railroad as way too narrow for vehicular traffic.

The 1964 view also shows a 3rd crossing of the Beltway in the area that was gone by 1979.  There used to be a bridge connecting Linnean St across the Beltway, then east beside the beltway to a small neighborhood, located where the Metro yard is now.  The 1960 view shows this neighborhood was accessed before the beltway came along via S. Quaker Ln from the south.

Today's Bluestone Rd -may- be leftover from this neighborhood (would've been the west edge).

Cameron Run sure looked different...

Mapmikey

[1995hoo]

I've been panning around on the old satellite views while eating breakfast. I really appreciate that link; it's fun to look at how the area used to look and to see how things have evolved around here. In particular, the old Washington—Virginia Airport off Seminary Road where the Skyline Towers development is now is interesting to see. The runway warning lights are still there on top of the Burke & Herbert Bank on Seminary just southeast of the corner of Carlin Springs Road. It's obvious why that airport had to close, but it's interesting to see just how middle-of-nowhere it was in 1949.

But what's surprised me a bit was looking at the evolution of the interchanges along Shirley Highway. I'd always assumed, without evidence, that the mish-mash of interchange designs on that road was due to it being one of Virginia's earliest controlled-access highways and I figured that the interchange designs reflected some level of experimentation to see what worked and what didn't. From looking at the old satellite views, it looks as though the 1970s-era reconstruction when they added the express lanes had more of an impact on the interchanges than I might previously have thought (though of course upon reflection that makes perfect sense–medians back in the 1940s to 1960s were nowhere near as wide as they are today, so a rebuild would be a more extensive project), and so "early experimental designs" doesn't really account for some of the dumber designs like the Seminary Road interchange. I've always rather LIKED the King Street interchange because of how it eliminates the weave areas, and I've always particularly hated the Duke Street and Edsall Road interchanges due to the southbound sides having weave areas right on the highway. But anyway, the old satellite views show that Seminary was once a half-interchange and that Duke, King, and Edsall were once standard cloverleafs. Interesting to see all that.

I also thought it was interesting to see how the area that is now the Carlyle project in Alexandria (new Patent and Trademark Office, federal courthouse, condos) used to be the railroad yard.



Edited to add: If you look at Dulles Airport in 1979 you can see a Concorde on the tarmac out where the midfield terminals are now.

[Mapmikey]

Here is a street-level view of the Shirlington interchange from the 1940s:
http://www.vahighways.com/mapscans/old350view.jpg

Mapmikey

[1995hoo]

I had a link to a photo of the old at-grade railroad crossing on Shirley Highway just north of Shirlington, but the site to which the link pointed seems to be defunct. The picture was taken sometime in the 1960s and it was interesting to see that while the highway had changed, some of the surrounding area hadn't–that abandoned brown brick building where all those cars are now stored was there, as was the apartment/condo building just north of Glebe that was recently the focus of some construction.


Edited to add: Google to the rescue! I found something elsewhere suggesting this was 1968.

[mightyace]

Looking at the 1949 map gives an apparent reason for the Bush Hill Road overpass.  The overpass over the RR tracks is there even then and the crossing of the tracks looks like a driveway to a building of some kind, probably a house.  The 1962-64 show that a driveway was built from Eisenhower Ave to the building.

Not surprisingly, as a driveway, one lane would be fine.

[D-Dey65]

Bush Hill Drive:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=38.79902,-77.12214&z=16&t=T
http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=2.06333543745594E-05&lat=38.8004486049574&lon=-77.1218065636159&year=1979

OT, how do you make the Historical Aerials website focus on the location you want it to focus on? I've tried to add some old maps as Wikipedia citaitons but they keep going somewhere else.

[NE2]

'copy link' under share.

[D-Dey65]

'copy link' under share.

That doesn't work. It always goes back to that image you have from Fairfax County, Virginia in 1949.

[formulanone]

Bush Hill Drive:
http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=2.06333543745594E-05&lat=38.8004486049574&lon=-77.1218065636159&year=1979

I just want to say thank you for that site!