Northern Virginia Trolleys

Northern Virginia Trolleys

The earliest electric railway, or streetcar line, in Northern Virginia opened in 1892. At their peak, when merged into a single interurban system (the Washington-Virginia Railway), the successors of this and several other lines ran between downtown Washington, D.C., Rosslyn and Arlington Junction – present day Crystal City – and out to Mount Vernon, Fairfax City and Nauck (in Arlington County). Electric trolleys also went west from Georgetown and Rosslyn on the Washington and Old Dominion Railway's (W&OD's) Bluemont Division via Leesburg to the town of Bluemont at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In addition, electric trolleys of the W&OD's Great Falls Division traveled from Georgetown and Rosslyn via Cherrydale and McLean to Great Falls Park (see: Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad). Despite early success, the streetcars were unable to compete with the automobile and with each other, and, plagued with management and financial problems, ceased operations in the 1930s and 1940s.

Northern Virginia's trolleys were originally operated by three different companies and were never integrated with the Washington streetcar network. The lines were laid when most of the area was undeveloped, and so the trains ran mostly on separate rights-of-way.

The lines of the Washington-Virginia Railway terminated in downtown Washington, D.C., at 12th and D Streets, NW, (within the present Federal Triangle between Pennsylvania Avenue and the Federal Triangle Metrorail Station) after crossing the Potomac River near the site of the present 14th Street bridges over the Long Bridge and, beginning in 1906, the Highway Bridge. The W&OD Railway entered Georgetown after crossing the Potomac River from Rosslyn over the Aqueduct Bridge.

The Washington-Virginia Railway and the W&OD Railway used adjacent terminals in Rosslyn near the present location of the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel. After the Francis Scott Key Bridge replaced the Aqueduct Bridge in 1923, all of the Virginia lines terminated in Rosslyn, but Washington streetcars now crossed the river into Rosslyn where there was a turnaround loop. There, passengers could transfer to the Virginia lines.