Northern Virginia trolleys

rdf:langString Northern Virginia trolleys

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rdf:langString Washington-Virginia Railway

rdf:langString Washington-Virginia Railway

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rdf:langString Mount Vernon trolley terminal between 1910 and 1920

rdf:langString 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 – in 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, traveling through Herndon and Leesburg to reach the town of Bluemont at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Those on the W&OD's Great Falls Division traveled from Georgetown and Rosslyn via Cherrydale and McLean to Great Falls (see: Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad). Despite early success, the trolleys were unable to compete with the automobile and with each other. Plagued with management and financial problems, the last ended their operations in the 1930s and early 1940s during the Great Depression. Northern Virginia's trolleys were originally operated by three different companies that all planned to operate within the District of Columbia and were never integrated into the Washington streetcar network (see: Streetcars in Washington, D.C.). Their tracks were laid when most of Northern Virginia was undeveloped and had few streets and roads. As a result, the trolleys mostly operated on private right-of-ways that their companies leased or owned. After they began operating, a number of communities developed along their routes. The major lines of the Washington-Virginia Railway converged at Arlington Junction, which was located in the northwest corner of the present-day Crystal City south of The Pentagon. The Railway's trolleys then crossed the Potomac River near the site of the present 14th Street bridges over the Long Bridge and, beginning in 1906, the Highway Bridge. The trolleys then traveled to a terminal in downtown Washington located along Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, and D Street, NW, between 12th and 13 1/2 Streets, NW, on a site that is now near the Federal Triangle Metro station and the Old Post Office building within the Federal Triangle. The W&OD Railway terminated in Georgetown at a station on the west side of the Georgetown Car Barn after crossing the Potomac River from Rosslyn over the Aqueduct Bridge. The Washington-Virginia Railway and the W&OD Railway had adjacent stations in Rosslyn near the present location of the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel, permitting travelers to transfer between the two trolley systems. After the Francis Scott Key Bridge replaced the Aqueduct Bridge in 1923, none of the Virginia lines terminated in Georgetown. Instead, Washington streetcars crossed the river on the new bridge and entered a turnaround loop within Rosslyn. There, passengers could transfer between trolleys whose lines separately served Washington and Northern Virginia.

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