Historical Markers in
Arlington County, Virginia

101st Airborne Division 104th Infantry Division 12th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry 13th Airborne Division 144th Army Postal Unit 173d Airborne Brigade (Sep) 17th Airborne Division 1961 - 1975 199th Light Infantry Brigade 385th Bomb Group 3d United States Infantry 416th Bombardment Group 423rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion 454th Bombardment Group 455th Bombardment Group (Heavy) 484th Bombardment Group 487th Bomb Group 4th Infantry (Ivy) Division 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team 505th Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team 508 Parachute Infantry Regiment 511 Parachute Infantry Regiment 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion 56th Field Artillery Bn 63rd Infantry Division 70,000 Marines Helped Raise That Flag on Iwo Jima 82nd Airborne Division 92d Infantry Division 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy) 94th Infantry Division 96th Infantry Division, U.S. Army A Bastion-Style Fort Is a Mighty Fortress A Defensive Artillery Fort A Defensive Stronghold, Heavily Armed A Garden Sustains A Historic Junction A Legacy Older than the Republic A Place Where Memories Are Made A Roadside Respite A Split Second Made Immortal A Symbol of Union Abingdon Abingdon Plantation Abingdon Plantation Restoration African American Veterans of the Korean War Albert I. Cassell Alcova Alice N. Nicolson America the Beautiful Memorial Grove Americal Division American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, Inc. American Ex-Prisoners of War American Indian Villages and Captain John Smith American Legion Memorial of Arlington American Revolution American Red Maple American Special Operations Forces American Volunteer Group, China Air Task Force and the 14th Air Force American War Mothers American-Armenian Volunteer Memorial America's Army Amphibious Scouts and Raiders World War II An Attempt to Rescue American Hostages Held in Iran And How Will You Remember Them? Argonne Cross Arlington County in 1921 / John M. Walton, Architect Arlington County War Memorial Arlington Estate, 1860 Arlington House, 1864 Arlington Lodge 58 Arlington Post Office Arlington Transformed by War Arlington Village Armored Forces Army, Navy, and Air Force Nurses ARPANET Avenue of Heroes Ballston Ballston Metro / The Blue Goose Ball's Crossroads Barcroft Barcroft Community House Battery Garesché Battle Honors Unending Battle of the Bulge Battle of the Bulge Monument Beirut Barracks Victims Memorial Berlin Airlift Birchwood Bluemont Junction Bluemont Junction, ca. 1934 Brandymore Castle Bridge to Peace Buckingham Buffalo Soldiers Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Myer Canadian Cross of Sacrifice Carlin Community Hall Carlin Springs Catholic War Veterans, U.S.A. Centennial of Military Aviation Chain Bridge Chaplains Hill Charles Drew House Cherrydale Cherrydale & Maywood Cherrydale Drug Fair Sit-In Cherrydale Masonic Hall Cherrydale Volunteer Firehouse Civil Air Patrol Civil War Outpost Civil War Unknowns Monument Clay and Randolph Duel Communications along the Defensive Line Confederate Memorial Crossman House Dependence on Slave Labor Doubleday Dr. Roland Herman Bruner Drew School East Falls Church East Falls Church Station Edmund Douglas Campbell Elizabeth Pfohl Campbell Exercise Tiger Memorial Fairlington Faith ★ Honor ★ Virtue Famous Firsts in Aeronautics at Fort Myer Field Marshal Sir John Dill First Flight of an Airplane on a U.S. Army Installation First Marine Division Association Flow Of Time Force of Nature Fort Albany Fort Barnard Fort Bennett Fort Berry Fort C.F. Smith Fort C.F. Smith Fort C.F. Smith Fort C.F. Smith Fort Cass Fort Corcoran Fort Craig Fort Ethan Allen Fort Ethan Allen Fort Ethan Allen—What to Look For Fort Haggerty Fort Myer Historic District Fort Reynolds Fort Richardson Fort Runyon Fort Runyon after the Civil War Fort Runyon: Defending the Capital Fort Scott Fort Strong Fort Tillinghast Fort Whipple Fort Woodbury Founding of the U.S. Air Force Arlington Committee Four Mile Run and Flooding / The Restoration Project / I Live Here...Can You Find Me? / Public Art Freedman’s Village From Brownfield to Playing Fields Garden to Graves General George C. Marshall General Philip Kearny Memorial George Nicholas Saegmuller George Washington Carver Cooperative Apartments Glebe Road & Ballston / Marymount University Glencarlyn Station Glenmore Gold Star Mothers Memorial Granite Acroterion Green Valley Pharmacy Guardian of a Nation's Heritage Hall's Hill Wall Harmony of Friendship Harry W. Gray House Here We Remember Them All History of Bocce Ball Honoring the Women Who Served Hume School Hunter's Crossroads Ignace Jan Paderewski In Honor of All Who Serve Our Country Indian Warriors and Their Brothers John Ball House John C. McKinney Memorial Stables John Saegmuller House Jumping Mustangs Khe Sanh Veterans Kitchen Garden Known Units Garrisoned at Fort Runyon Korean War Korean War Contemplative Bench Lacey Car Barn Lancaster Monument Landing Craft Support Ships Lest We Forget Lexington Minute Men Lieut. Col. Edmund Rice Little Falls Road Lives of the Soldiers Lomax AME Zion Church Long Bridge Park: A Community Space Long Haul Mace Park Macedonia Baptist Church Margaret Elizabeth Pfohl Campbell Mary Carlin House Mary Randolph Mast of the USS Maine Matthew Alexander Henson Maury School Maywood McClellan Gate Memorial to US Airmen killed in Denmark Merrill's Marauders Military Chaplains Association Memorial Military Officers Association of America Memorial Minor's Hill Missions Critical Modern Liberation Montford Point Marines Moses Ball Grant Mount Vernon Trail Mount Vernon Trail Mt. Olivet Methodist Church Mt. Zion Baptist Church Nauck: A Neighborhood History Naval Combat Demolition Units New and Renewed Land No Greater Love POW-MIA Memorial Old Ball Family Burial Ground Operation Restore Hope Original Federal Boundary Stone, District of Columbia, Northwest 1 Original Federal Boundary Stone, District of Columbia, Southwest 4 Original Federal Boundary Stone, District of Columbia, Southwest 5 Original Federal Boundary Stone, District of Columbia, Southwest 6 Original Federal Boundary Stone, District of Columbia, Southwest 7 Original Federal Boundary Stone, District of Columbia, Southwest 8 Original Federal Boundary Stone, District of Columbia, Southwest 9 Original Federal Boundary Stone, District of Columbia, West Cornerstone Origins Orville Wright’s First Virginia Flight Pan American Airways Flight 103 Memorial Cairn Paying Tribute Pearl Harbor Survivors Association Peck Chevrolet Pentagon Memorial Piecing the Past Together Pimmit Run and Chain Bridge Platforms of Power Prospect Hill Protecting the Fort Purple Heart Memorial R Adams Cowley RADM Paul A. Holmberg Reeb Hall Reevesland Richard Evelyn Byrd Robert Edwin Peary Rockwell Field Ronald Reagan Rosslyn Rosslyn Station Rough Riders Saegmuller Public School Sailors, Coast Guardsmen and Marines of African and Asian-Pacific Descent Seabees ~ Can Do Seafarers Memorial Selina Gray Site of Arlington Chapel Something More Than A Statue Southern-Shreve Cemetery Spanish American War Memorial Spanish-American War Nurses Memorial Spirit of the Elbe St. John's Baptist Church Stratford Junior High School Swiss Internees Take Action! Taking Action: Barbara Johns Taking Action: Dorothy M. Bigelow Hamm Taking Action: E. Leslie Hamm, Jr. Taking Action: Michael Jones, Gloria Thompson, Ronald Deskins, Lance Newman Task Force Smith The 23rd Regimental Combat Team in Korea The 82nd Airborne Division Association The Ages of Abingdon The Alexander Family The Arlington Line The Arlington Mill The Arlington Radio Towers The Ball-Carlin Cemetery The Bay-Eva Castle Site The Blue Goose The Commander in Chief's Oak The Custis Family The Dawson-Bailey House The Dawson-Bailey Spring Site The Defenses of Washington The Embassy Bombings The Flower Garden The Glebe of Fairfax Parish The Gray Family The Great Falls Line The Hiker The Hunter Family The Industrial Age The Kingdom of My Childhood The March Across the Long Bridge The Marines' Fiercest Fighting of World War II The Memorial Carillon at Arlington National Cemetery The Military Order of the World Wars The Mouth of Pimmit Run The Peacemaker The Rakkasans The Sanctuary The Spirit of the Cavalry Lives On The Tulip Poplar - Giant of the Arlington Forest The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II The Union Soldier The Vietnamese Airborne Division and Their Advisors The View in 1865 The "Buffalo Soldiers" They Served with Honor - The Persian Gulf Third Infantry Division, U.S. Army This is W&OD Trail: Shirlington! Thomas Etholen Selfridge Tomb of Remembrance Tomb of the Unknowns Tracks into History Tracks Into History Transportation Travers Family Graveyard Trolleys Come to Ballston / CIA Occupies the Building Trophy of War U. S. Army Reserves U.S. Coast Guard Memorial U.S. Fourth Infantry Division U.S. Navy Bombing Squadron VB104 U.S. Navy Cruiser Sailors Association U.S. Secret Army in the Kingdom of Laos U.S. War Correspondent U.S.S. Boston U.S.S. Houston and H.M.A.S. Perth U.S.S. Maine Anchor U.S.S. Salem Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Virginia Sanctuary United States Army 8th Air Force United States Army Military Police Corps United States Marine Corps War Memorial United States Space Shuttle Challenger United States Space Shuttle Columbia USS Frank E. Evans DD 754 USS Serpens Memorial USS Underhill (DE-682) Memorial Victims of Terrorist Attack on the Pentagon Vietnamese Rangers and Their American Ranger Advisors Walker Chapel Walter Reed, M.D. War of 1812 Memorial Washington and Old Dominion Trail Washington's Survey Marker Watergate Investigation Welburn Square Welcome to Fort Ethan Allen Welcome to Fort Reynolds Park Welcome to Jennie Dean Park Welcome to Jennie Dean Park Women in Military Service for America Memorial World War II Killed in Action Memorial World’s First Public Passenger Flight Wright Park Wunder's Crossroads WW II Glider Pilots You Are Remembered "Lest We Forget - We Stand on Your Shoulders" "Price of Freedom" "The Borinqueneers"
The first successful English attempt to establish a colony in North America was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 on Roanoke Island, off the coast of Virginia.
Arlington County, VA has a rich and diverse history that dates back thousands of years. The area was originally inhabited by Native American tribes, including the Powhatan and the Chesapeake peoples, who lived along the banks of the Potomac River. European exploration of the region began in the early 17th century, with Captain John Smith and others making contact with the local tribes.

In 1801, the federal government acquired land along the Potomac River to establish the District of Columbia, including what is now Arlington County. However, in 1846, the portion of the land on the Virginia side of the river was retroceded back to Virginia due to political tensions between the southern states and the federal government.

During the American Civil War, Arlington County played a significant role. The area was turned into a military encampment and eventually became the site of Arlington National Cemetery, where Union soldiers were buried. After the war, the land was returned to its original owner, George Washington Custis Lee, the grandson of George Washington. In 1871, the government purchased the land from Lee's family, and the cemetery continued to grow.

In the 20th century, Arlington County experienced rapid suburbanization and urban development. The construction of the Pentagon in the 1940s and the expansion of federal agencies led to an influx of residents and increased economic activity. Today, Arlington County is known for its vibrant communities, bustling urban centers, and close proximity to Washington, D.C. It is also home to numerous landmarks, including the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery, and the Marine Corps War Memorial.

This timeline provides a condensed summary of the historical journey of Arlington County, Virginia.

  • 1600: Native American tribes, including the Doeg and Nacotchtank, live in the area now known as Arlington County.
  • 1634: English settlers establish a trading post near present-day Rosslyn.
  • 1801: The United States purchases the land that will eventually become Arlington County as part of the District of Columbia.
  • 1846: The portion of the District of Columbia west of the Potomac River is returned to Virginia due to legislation passed by Congress.
  • 1861: The American Civil War begins.
  • 1864: Arlington House, belonging to General Robert E. Lee, is seized by the Union Army and becomes the site of Arlington National Cemetery.
  • 1920: The name of the county is changed from Alexandria County to Arlington County.
  • 1954: Integration of public schools in Arlington County takes place following the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.
  • 1970s: Arlington County experiences significant growth in population and urban development.
  • 2001: The Pentagon is damaged during the September 11 terrorist attacks.