Here's why Arlington's streets have the names they do - Greater Greater Washington

Clarendon with Metro Bus by Arlington County licensed under Creative Commons.

This article was first published on December 10, 2009. The information about Arlington’s streets is still relevant, so we wanted to share this piece with you again.

Did you know there’s a rhyme and reason to how Arlington County’s streets are named? Here’s an explanation of Arlington’s street-naming system.

While Arlington was originally part of the District of Columbia (until 1846), it was not incorporated in the plan of Pierre L’Enfant. Unlike its larger neighbor, Arlington’s streets don’t follow a strict grid, but development has still followed a somewhat rectilinear pattern. The street-naming system dates back to 1932, and was undertaken in order to convince the Postal Service to allow “Arlington” as the mailing address for the entire county.

The county is divided into northern and southern sections by Arlington Boulevard, a major east-west thoroughfare which bisects the county.

In contrast to Washington, east-west streets are numbered. Since Arlington does not have quadrants, but instead has halves, most streets are identified with “north” or “south” relative to Arlington Boulevard. The directional suffix follows numbered streets, but precedes named streets. Numbered streets increase with distance from Arlington Boulevard in both directions. Accordingly, it is flanked on the north by First Street North and on the opposite side by First Street South. Numbered streets are usually “streets,” but when additional streets fill in blocks, “Road” and then “Place” is used.

Named streets run north-south. Like DC, the first letter of the street name and number of syllables indicates where in the grid a street is located. The origin for the named streets is the Potomac River. The first “alphabet” is made up of one-syllable words, the second of two-syllable words, the third of three-syllable words, and the fourth is just one street: North Arizona Street. As distance from the Potomac increases, letters increase successively.

Instead of using “Place” to indicate a second street of the same letter filling in the street grid as DC does, Arlington just uses another word of the same first letter and syllables. In that regard, Danville Street could be followed by Daniel Street. A look at a progression of successive letters shows the strata of the alphabets in Arlington’s street grid.

None of Washington’s state-named avenues continue into Virginia, so Arlington uses a different methodology for indicating major streets. Like the street bisecting the county, major east-west roads are typically called “boulevards”. Examples include Wilson and Clarendon Boulevards.

Major north-south streets are often called “drives.” Examples include Walter Reed and George Mason Drives.

Many roads pre-date the addressing system of 1932, and have kept their historical names. These include “roads,” highways,” Spout Run Parkway, and Columbia Pike.

This post first ran back in 2009. Since the history hasn’t changed, we thought we’d share it with you again!

Matt Johnson has lived in the Washington area since 2007. He has a Master’s in Planning from the University of Maryland and a BS in Public Policy from Georgia Tech. He lives in Dupont Circle. He’s a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and is an employee of the Montgomery County Department of Transportation. His views are his own and do not represent those of his employer.

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Here's why Arlington's streets have the names they do - Greater Greater Washington
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