Arlington, VA news and local guide

Colonists moved toward the Potomac between 1646 and 1676, and early land grants went to prominent Virginians, many of whom never lived on them. The first settled grant was the Howson Patent, later bought by John Alexander. The land became part of the District of Columbia in 1791 and returned to Virginia in 1846, and that year the Alexandria Canal opened, linking Alexandria by the Aqueduct Bridge to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Georgetown. The county's first railway was chartered in 1847. The county was long called Alexandria County. It was officially renamed Arlington County in 1920, after the Arlington estate, as it was rapidly becoming a commuter suburb of Washington. Arlington House, on the old Custis plantation, now tells the story of the estate, the people enslaved there and Robert E. Lee, and Arlington National Cemetery around it holds more than 400,000 members of the armed forces. Sources Wikipedia: Arlington County, Virginia Wikipedia: Washington, D.C.