Why all the confusing place/street names in NoVa? (Richmond: neighborhoods, high schools)

[kevbros]

Place and street names seem to be an endless source of confusion in this NoVa forum. What's Alexandria? Where's 21st Street in Arlington - which one? Falls Church High School isn't in Falls Church? It's in "Jefferson?" Huh? Of course, Thomas Jefferson High School is not in "Jefferson," it's in Alexandria, but students from Alexandria cannot attend TJ? Speaking of Jefferson, what's the difference between the Jefferson Davis Highway, the Richmond Highway and Route 1? What about the Shirley Highway and 395? It's all so confusing. No wonder newcomers are so confounded! Are there better examples? Are other places around the country as confusing as NoVa?

[rvasonicbloom]

Get a GPS.

[Stephen 81]

Um...Falls Church HS most definitely has a Falls Church mailing address, and I'm not familiar with "Jefferson" used as a place name in NoVA. Also, I'm not sure why anyone would think that Thomas Jefferson High School would have to be in a place called Jefferson - there are George Washington High Schools in probably all fifty states, and nobody's that puzzled that they aren't all in Washington State or Washington, D.C.

Route 1 is both the Jefferson Davis Highway and Richmond Highway. It's not a local thing to have U.S. highways change names in different counties or jurisdictions. U.S. 50 is not called "Arlington Boulevard" or "Constitution Avenue" in Kansas City, and calling U.S. 1 "Capital Boulevard" like they do in Raleigh would confuse most locals here.

I will admit, though, the Virginia difference between independent cities and parts of the surrounding county with an identical mailing address is hard to grasp. We're definitely the odd state out in that regard.

[cdmurphy]

I think OP means the fact that the City of Falls Church's high school (George Mason) is not actually in the City of Falls Church - which is true, but it does have a Falls Church mailing address.

Plenty of roads around here have multiple names. That's why people tend to call roads by their number (Route 7, Route 50, Route 29, I-66) instead of names - unless you are talking about a specific address. I have NEVER heard anyone call I-66 "Custis Memorial Parkway" or VA-267 "Hirst-Brault Expressway." You just need to know the big ones - Route 7 is mostly Leesburg Pike, except in Alexandria where it's King St., Falls Church where it's Broad St., or in Leesburg where it's Market St., etc.

I don't think it's ridiculously crazy, like all the Peachtree streets in Atlanta.

[bmwguydc]

I am used to the strange place names, overlapping zip codes, etc. because Westchester County in New York is not much different in that regard.

The OP is correct, though, Falls Church HS is in Fairfax County. In New York, this would be referred to as the P.O. as in Falls Church P.O., meaning that the postal service classifies it as Falls Church, but it lies outside the municipal boundaries. And, IIRC, that area of Providence District is categorized as the Jefferson CDP, but it's not a name that's in common use. People tend to refer to the neighborhoods in that area as the place names.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by kevbros

What about the Shirley Highway

You don't hear it called that so much anymore. I don't think we have any alternative names for 66. We'll need to work on that.

[cdmurphy]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

You don't hear it called that so much anymore. I don't think we have any alternative names for 66. We'll need to work on that.

Wikipedia:

I-66 is named the "Custis Memorial Parkway" east of the Capital Beltway in Virginia.The name commemorates the Custis family, several of whose members (including Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, George Washington Parke Custis, Eleanor (Nellie) Parke Custis Lewis and Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee) played prominent roles in Northern Virginia's history.

[zotmeister]

welcome to NOVA. There are streets that go North -south but is broken apart by a street you can't drive across. You have to drive around to pick up that street again a block off of where you are going. Its typical old street design of the area. The city is terrible in gridding the streets. Also, the beltway is one of the most inefficient design of highway to get anywhere. All those miles of roads built and you are simply going 10-15 miles out of DC.

Another thing is Route 7 is really not a "route". Its a residential street with weird designs in some city to have "offramps". Routes should not have lights.

[CAVA1990]

I-66 is named the "Custis Memorial Parkway" east of the Capital Beltway in Virginia.The name commemorates the Custis family, several of whose members (including Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, George Washington Parke Custis, Eleanor (Nellie) Parke Custis Lewis and Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee) played prominent roles in Northern Virginia's history.

The Custises need a better marketing dept. as I've never heard it referred to as that. A more appropriate name though would be The NIMBY Highway.

[Northbound81]

"Routes" most certainly do have lights. Any road with a number is a "route" and most of them have lights except for interstate highways and other controlled-access freeways.