Virginia
Columbia Pike/Lake Barcroft

The Columbia Pike corridor stretches for more than three miles across Arlington, from Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon in the East to the border of Fairfax County in the West. Some call it Arlington’s version of a Main Street, due to its blend of housing, local shops and ethnic restaurants that reflect contemporary Arlington’s diversity. The area was first settled by British colonists back in 1669, but it wasn’t until the early 1800s that the route was established as the Columbia Turnpike Road. During the Civil War, the route was used by Union troops who occupied Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s estate, which became Arlington National Cemetery, and established a camp for emancipated slaves there. In the late 1800s, people began to build houses and businesses along the route, but it wasn’t until the construction of a streetcar stop in the early 1900s that the area really began to grow. After World War II, the roadway was widened to four lanes to accommodate cars headed to the many new shopping centers that were springing up. At the west end of the Columbia Pike in Fairfax County, Lake Barcroft — originally created in 1915 as a reservoir — became both a recreational area and the core of a suburban development with 1,000 homes in the 1950s. The housing stock ranges from brick and wood frame row houses and condominium buildings to 1950s-vintage brick two-story houses.