History
Arlington Boulevard has a shorter history than many other major arterial roads in the region and was only built in the first half of the 20th century in several stages beginning in the west in progressing east. The entire route was complete in 1938 with the final section around Fort Myer. The road was originally called Lee Boulevard but, with Lee Highway being another major route in Northern Virginia, the name was changed to Arlington Boulevard in the early 1950s.
Between 1935-37, the US 50 designation was attached to the road even though it had yet to be completed past Glebe Road, then VA 9. Before that, the road was VA 236, a number now assigned to the nearby Little River Turnpike.
The completed Arlington Boulevard's eastern terminus was originally the George Washington Memorial Parkway crossing in the District of Columbia at Columbia Island. With the completion of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge in 1964, Arlington Boulevard's terminus was moved to its present location.
Arlington Boulevard is currently undergoing major improvements in Arlington County and "the long-range vision is to transform Arlington Boulevard into a parkway route through the County, one that is made safer for bus riders, bicyclists and pedestrians and one that serves as an appropriate gateway into the County."
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—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)