Arlington County, Virginia, street-naming system

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This article details the street-naming system of Arlington County, Virginia in the United States.

Although the streets of Arlington County are not laid out on a grid plan, its local streets follow sequential numbered or alphabetic patterns that are both rational and provide address numbering information.

Contents 1 History of the system 2 Specifics of the system 3 Exceptions to the system 4 Address numbers in the system 5 Block numbers on east-west streets 6 List of named (north-south) streets within the system 7 Reference 8 External links

[edit] History of the system

A numbered and alphabetical street-naming scheme suggests that Arlington is or once was laid out on a continuous rectilinear grid plan, which in many parts of the County it is not (although very few parts of the County are laid out using the cul-de-sac type development which is more common in the outer Washington, DC suburbs). Originally, the various communities in the county had independent street-naming conventions. However, when county officials asked the United States Postal Service to place the entire county in a single "Arlington, Virginia" postal area, the USPS refused to do so until the county had a unified addressing system, which the county developed in 1932. For that reason, and also because Arlington contains a number of locations that interrupt the road grid network (including military facilities, parks, golf courses, and limited-access highways), it is common for streets to terminate and continue later on in another location. Arlington now has a policy of adding to the street grid when feasible as part of new development -- for example, connections for Quinn Street and Troy Street were recently added to the Master Transportation Plan between Wilson and Clarendon Boulevards.

[edit] Specifics of the system

Arlington Boulevard (U.S. Route 50) bisects Arlington County into northern and south sections, except for a few streets between Fort Myer Military Reservation and Arlington Boulevard, which are designated north even though they are south of Arlington Boulevard

East-west streets are designated by an ordinal number followed by a north or south designation. The numbers begin on either side of Arlington Boulevard and increase moving away from it. Therefore, 1st Street North is immediately north of Arlington Boulevard and 1st Street South is immediately south of it.

North-south streets are named and alphabetized starting at the Potomac River in the east. Progressing westward, the alphabetizing sequence is:

1. One-syllable names (Ball Street to Wayne Street)
2. Two-syllable names (Adams to Woodrow)
3. Three-syllable names (Abingdon to Yucatan)
4. Four-syllable names (Arizona is the only street in this sequence)

North and south designations precede named streets and also denote their position relative to Arlington Boulevard. For example, North Stuart Street.

Arlington's local numbered and named streets are not through streets and thus each number or name can appear multiple times at multiple locations in the county but always according to the grid. For example, there are several 12th Streets South or North Kensington Streets in various areas of the county. In cases where more names are needed to avoid confusion in areas of denser street construction, numbered (east-west) streets are first designated "street", then "road," then "place." For example, 37th Street North, 37th Road North, and 37th Place North are all in the same general area. Named (north-south) local streets follow rules regarding initial letter and syllable number but there can be multiple street names with the same initial letter number of syllables, almost all ending with "street.". For example, North Kenilworth Street, North Kensington Street, and North Kentucky Street are all in the same area.

[edit] Exceptions to the system

Major arteries or historical roads are exempt from the naming and numbering system. Named streets with the designation "road," "pike," or "highway" instead of "street" usually predate the system and follow early winding routes. "Boulevards" and "drives" are generally are major diagonal thoroughfares with historic names. Boulevards usually run east-west and drives run north-south but are designated as north and south only when they appear on both sides of Arlington Boulevard.

[edit] Address numbers in the system

Address numbers can be determined from the numbers or names of intersecting streets. Addresses on north-south routes, including exceptions from the numbering and naming system, follow the numbers of intersecting (or implied intersections of) numbered streets. For example, 2005 South Glebe Road would lie just beyond the intersection of South Glebe Road and 20th Street South. Addresses on east-west, including exceptions from the numbering and naming system, are based on the intersecting (or implied intersections of) named streets with each letter/syllable combination representing 100 address numbers. The chart below shows the block numbers on east-west streets.

[edit] Block numbers on east-west streets

Block Number	Street Name		Block Number	Street Name		Block Number	Street Name		Block Number	Street Name
200	Ball		2000	Taft		4000	Quincy		6000	Nottingham
300	Clark		2100	Uhle		4100	Randolph		6100	Ohio
400	(Dale)		2200	Veitch		4200	Stafford		6200	Powhatan
500	Eads		2300	Wayne		4300	Taylor		6300	Quantico
600	Fern		2400	Adams		4400	Utah		6400	Roosevelt
700	Grant		2500	Barton		4500	Vermont		6500	Sycamore
800	Hayes		2600	Cleveland		4600	Wakefield		6600	Tuckahoe
900	Ives		2700	Danville		4700	Abingdon		6700	Underwood
1000	Joyce		2800	Edgewood		4800	Buchanan		6800	Van Buren
1100	Kent		2900	Fillmore		4900	Columbus		6900	Westmoreland
1200	Lynn		3000	Garfield		5000	Dinwiddie		7000	Arizona
1300	Meade		3100	Highland		5100	Edison
1400	Nash		3200	Irving		5200	Frederick
1500	Oak		3300	Jackson		5300	Greenbrier
1600	Pierce		3400	Kenmore		5400	Harrison
1700	Queen		3500	Lincoln		5500	Illinois
1800	Rolfe		3600	Monroe		5600	Jefferson
1900	Scott		3700	Nelson		5700	Kensington
			3800	Oakland		5800	Lexington
			3900	Pollard		5900	Madison

Addresses on the south and west (left) sides of the streets are even-numbered. Below is a complete list of named (north-south) streets within the system.

[edit] List of named (north-south) streets within the system

One Syllable	Two Syllable	Three Syllable	Four Syllable
Ball	Adams	Aberdeen	Arizona
Clark	Barton	Abingdon
(Dale)	Bedford	Albemarle
Eads	Brookside	Brandywine
Fern	Bryan	Buchanan
Fox	Calvert	Burlington
Grant	Cleveland	Columbus
Grove	Daniel	Culpeper
Hayes	Danville	Delaware
High	Edgewood	Dickerson
Hill	Fenwick	Dinwiddie
Inge	Fillmore	Edison
Ives	Garfield	Emerson
Joyce	Hancock	Evergreen
June	Hartford	Florida
Kent	Harvard	Frederick
Knoll	Herndon	Galveston
Lynn	Highland	Granada
Meade	Hudson	Greenbrier
Moore	Irving	Greencastle
Nash	Jackson	Harrison
Oak	Johnson	Hollister
Ode	Kansas	Huntington
Orme	Kenmore	Illinois
Pierce	Langley	Inglewood
Poe	Lincoln	Ivanhoe
Quinn	Lorton	Jefferson
Rhodes	Lowell	Kenilworth
Rolfe	Monroe	Kennebec
Scott	Nelson	Kennesaw
Taft	Norwood	Kensington
Troy	Oakland	Kentucky
Uhle	Oxford	Lancaster
Vance	Peary	Larrimore
Veitch	Piedmont	Lebanon
Wayne	Pollard	Lexington
	Quebec	Liberty
	Quincy	Littleton
	Radford	Livingston
	Randolph	Lombardy
	Richmond	Longfellow
	Stafford	Madison
	Stuart	Manchester
	Taylor	McKinley
	Tazewell	Montague
	Thomas	Montana
		Nicholas
		Nottingham
		Ohio
		Ottawa
		Pocomoke
		Potomac
		Powhatan
		Quantico
		Quesada
		Quintana
		Rockingham
		Roosevelt
		Somerset
		Sycamore
		Tacoma
		Trinidad
		Tuckahoe
		Underwood
		Van Buren
		Vanderpool
		Veneble
		Westmoreland
		Yucatan

[edit] Reference

• Arlington County Street Naming System

[edit] External links

• Arlington County's GIS Mapping Center maps of Arlington