Transportation and roads

history of transportation byways

A teaching activity. A fill-in-the-blanks worksheet linking today's major roads and highways with their historic roots.

Mary Lipsey

2007

PDF

Rebel Hill, Artist's Drawing

On March 29, 1962, The Washington Post reported testimony by Mrs. Z. C. Zefteris of Kings Park West about Rebel Hill on Braddock Road to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Describing cars sliding off the steep road in icy conditions and the inability of women to walk up the hill to call for help, she is quoted: "They had to go up that hill on their hands and knees..."

Artist Chris Lipsey depicts what it might have been like for drivers in winter.

Courtesy Chris Lipsey

Copyrighted material, not to be reproduced without permission of owner

Slideshow: Rebel Hill

Rebel Hill, a small but steep hill on Braddock Road near Wakefield Chapel Road, challenged drivers, especially in bad weather, until tamed by highway engineers in the early 1970s. A good replica of the original road exists in the bike and footpath on the north side of Braddock Road, which the slideshow traces in a series of 10 captioned pictures.

NOTE: Although the second slide caption dates the highway construction in the 1960s, later research places it between March 1970 and March 1972.

Courtesy John Browne

Oral History: Al Hlavin

Al Hlavin served as Assistant Superintendent for Facilities Services in the Fairfax County Public Schools. He discusses challenges, achievements, and problems associated with building schools, including construction of Terra Centre Elementary School, a partially underground energy-efficient facility. He moved to the county in 1974.

Oral History: John Hawthorne

John Hawthorne grew up in Northern Virginia and talks about childhood, development, and community action against excessive growth. He describes the early years of Ravensworth Farm.

Oral History: Wes Hatfield

Wes Hatfield moved to Fairfax County in 1968 after a tour of military duty in Vietnam with the U.S. Air Force. After military retirement, he entered the real estate business. He discusses housing development and transportation in the region.

Oral History: Eileen Garnett

Eileen Garnett moved to Annandale in 1972. She reminisces about development that came to support increasing numbers of homes and subdivisions. She describes the revitalization project which she helped found in the 1980s and continues to guide. The revitalization project worked to upgrade the business district in Annandale.

Oral History: Jennifer Cornelson Addington

Jennifer Cornelson Addington grew up in Old Burke where her family lived in Whiteoaks, the original edifice of the Burke Elementary School. She reminisces about her childhood and neighborhood growth.

A Look Back at Braddock Oral History Project

1928 Buick

1928 Buick with Elgin Kirby, long time Burke resident, at the wheel. Photo taken circa 1937

Courtesy Suzanne Fowler Neal

Early Roads

A 1911 Buick stalled on a muddy road near Fairfax, Virginia, circa 1920.

Photograph from Fairfax County Public Library, Virginia Room, Photographic Archive