Other sitesrecall the nation's past: Claude Moore Colonial Farm recreates 1700s tobaccofarm life. presidents are honored at Lyndon BainesJohnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac and Theodore Roosevelt Island. Lee lived here until the Civil-war broke out in 1861. Later, Custis' daughter Mary andher husband Robert E. He filled the home,finished in 1817, with Washington heirlooms. That year, on the 1,100-acre estatehe inherited, Custis began building a Greek Revival mansion. Custis left Mount Vernon in 1802 after hisgrandmother Martha Custis Washington died. Arlington House was theproperty of Washington's step-grandson George Washington Parke Custis, who wasraised by the Washingtons. Abingdon, home of Washington's stepson John Parke Custis, isthe site of Ronald Reagan-Washington National Airport. Other members of Washington's family held land that is nowwithin the parkway.
George Washington Memorial Parkway includes remains of this late-1700scanal at Great Falls Park and sections of Washington's tidal Potomac farmlands:Riverside Park, Fort Hunt Park, and Collingwood Picnic Area. He lobbied for building the Patowmack Canal to route boatssafely around the "great falls" of the Potomac, nearly 30 miles upriver from hishome. One of his dreams forpost-Revolutionary America was to turn the Potomac River into the commercialgateway to the West. Within the park you can visit over 25sites associated with George Washington's life, and with the life of the nationhe helped establish.īy the time he became president in 1789, George Washingtonowned 8,000 acres along the Potomac River in Virginia, from south of MountVernon to several miles north of the estate. Today George WashingtonMemorial Parkway is a 7,600-acre national park area protecting the landscape andnative habitat of the Potomac shoreline. By 1970, 6.8 miles of the Maryland section were complete thatsection was renamed in honor of Clara Barton in 1989. In the 1950s and 1960s the parkway was extended northward.Traversing more difficult terrain than the southern leg, this section displaysthe latest in road engineering methods for its timea wide, gently curvingroad with a grassy median, low stone guardrails, and soaring steel-and-concretearched bridges. Built by the Department ofAgriculture's Bureau of Public Roads, it was proclaimed "America's Most ModernMotorway." While it was under construction, Congress renamed it GeorgeWashington Memorial Parkway, expanding its authorized length and its mission.Under the Capper-Cramton Act of 1930, the federal government acquired land alongthe Potomac River in Virginia from Great Falls to Mount Vernon to protect theshoreline and palisades, preserve historic features, and provide for publicrecreation areas. The 16-mile road improved access through Virginiaand ushered in a new era of road-building. In 1932, thebicentennial of his birth, Mount Vernon Memorial Highway opened from ArlingtonMemorial Bridge to the estate. But sites in andnear his namesake city can claim special significance because here he lived,worked, worshipped, and planned for the nation's future.Įven in Washington's lifetime, his home at Mount Vernondrew sightseers, growing more popular with each generation. Henry Lee's 1799 eulogy still rings true: "First in war,first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Three centurieslater, Washington lives on through countless places of tribute.
Few figures in United States history are so revered asGeorge Washington. Commander-in-chief in the American Revolution.