SEARCH SITE

VIRGINIA LAW PORTAL

SEARCHABLE DATABASES

ACROSS SESSIONS

Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.

2010 SESSION

10105343D
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 331
Offered February 23, 2010
Commending the Columbia Pike on the occasion of its 200th anniversary.
----------

Patrons-- Hope, Brink, Ebbin, Englin, Kory and Watts; Senators: Ticer, Saslaw and Whipple
----------

WHEREAS, the Columbia Pike, the main street of the South Arlington community, celebrates its 200th anniversary in 2010; and

WHEREAS, the Columbia Pike was authorized by Congress on April 12, 1810; a turnpike company was chartered to build the Columbia Pike and charge tolls for a road connecting the Long Bridge over the Potomac near today’s 14th Street Bridge to the Little River Turnpike in what is now Annandale; and

WHEREAS, a microcosm of the history of our nation, Columbia Pike was the location of many significant events and numerous historical personages are known or believed to have traveled the Columbia Pike; and

WHEREAS, President Lincoln likely travelled on the Pike to the grand review of federal troops in November 1861 at Bailey’s Crossroads; a spectator to that event, abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, wrote the poem that became the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” upon her return to the Willard Hotel in Washington; and

WHEREAS, during the Civil War, a garrison of German-speaking immigrant soldiers was stationed near Glebe Road and Columbia Pike supporting Fort Berry, Fort Barnard, and other forts defending Washington; and

WHEREAS, a skirmish occurred where the Washington & Old Dominion railroad crossed the Columbia Pike, near where George Washington Parke Custis had built a mill in 1836, the site of Arlington Mill on Four Mile Run; and

WHEREAS, Freedman’s Village was established on the Arlington House grounds near what is now Washington Boulevard as a home for newly emancipated people; as the country reconciled, former Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby lived near Columbia Pike in his later years; and

WHEREAS, in 1915 the first cross-Atlantic voice radio broadcast was sent from towers in the Penrose neighborhood to the Eiffel Tower in Paris; and

WHEREAS, ALCOVA house (ALexandria COunty VirginiA) was built in the 1920s and the landmark Arlington Theatre soon thereafter; and

WHEREAS, in 1941 people displaced from Queen City for construction of the Pentagon settled nearby in what is now Arlington View, while German POWs are said to have worked on repaving the Columbia Pike during World War II; and

WHEREAS, individuals living near the Columbia Pike recall the shock and horror of September 11, 2001, and remember the resolve and unity as the firefighters from Arlington neighborhoods unfurled the American flag on the still-smoldering Pentagon; and

WHEREAS, in recent years, the Columbia Pike community has become one of the most culturally diverse anywhere; a Brookings Institution study describes the 22204 zip code as “the world in a zip code,” as immigrants from all continents are welcomed to the Columbia Pike community; and

WHEREAS, the fourth President of the United States signed legislation authorizing Columbia Pike; the 44th recently met with the students at Wakefield High School to start the school year; and

WHEREAS, throughout its history, Columbia Pike has been on the front edge of the changes to the nation while the communities surrounding Columbia Pike provide a home and a haven for local citizens; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly commend the Columbia Pike on the occasion of its 200th anniversary; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to John Snyder, Chair of Pike200, as an expression of the General Assembly’s appreciation and acknowledgement of the rich historical legacy of the Columbia Pike.