A History of the Boundaries of Arlington County, Virginia Part 3

[45] Acts of a.s.sembly, 1858, Chapter 270. Enacted April 2, 1858.

This line remained in effect until January 27, 1865, when an amendment to the charter[46] withdrew from the jurisdiction of the city all the territory in Fairfax county (bounded by the old District line, Hooff's Run and Hunting Creek) which had been added to the town by the charter of 1858. The next year, on January 25, 1866, the General a.s.sembly rescinded this action and restored the boundaries of 1858.[47] A further change occurred in this area on February 20, 1871, when the last part of the description was changed to read:

"... to a point in the line dividing the county of Fairfax and Alexandria from each other, ten feet west of Hooff's Run; thence southerly with the said line into the Potomac River; thence up said river to the beginning."[48]

[46] Acts of a.s.sembly 1865/66, Chapter IX.

[47] Acts of a.s.sembly 1866/67, Chapter 152.

[48] Acts of a.s.sembly 1871, Chapter 73. The frequent and rapid changes in this boundary appear to have been related to the complexion of the electorate in the affected area and the varying political sentiments of the immediate post Civil War and Reconstruction periods.

A major change occurred on May 1, 1870, when the City of Alexandria was excluded from the County. This came about through the implementation of an Act of the a.s.sembly[49] following the adoption of a new Virginia Const.i.tution in 1869. In delineating the magisterial districts into which counties were to be divided it was provided that "no part of any town or city having a separate organization, or a population of five thousand or more inhabitants, shall be embraced." Alexandria was such a city and thereafter was independent of as well as outside of the County.

[49] Acts of a.s.sembly, 1869-70, Chapter 39.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP IV Areas Annexed by the City of Alexandria in 1915 and 1929 Drafted by W. B. Allison and B. Sims]

There were no further legislative changes in the boundaries of the City of Alexandria after 1871. In 1915, however, the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, reversed a decision of the Circuit Court of Alexandria County given on January 13, 1913. The City Council of Alexandria had sought to annex adjoining territory from both Fairfax and Alexandria counties and had been opposed by the authorities of those counties who had been upheld by the Circuit Court. The Order of the Supreme Court of Appeals[50] transferred 866 acres from Arlington and 450 acres from Fairfax to Alexandria.

[50] Alexandria County, _Deed Book 146_, p. 387. See Appendix.

Cf. also, C. B. Rose, Jr., "Annexation of a Portion of Arlington County by the City of Alexandria in 1915," _The Arlington Historical Magazine_, pp. 22-36, Vol. 2, No. 4 (1964). For a discussion of the judicial process of annexation, cf. Bain, _Annexation in Virginia_.

This annexation took effect on April 1, 1915. Once more thereafter Arlington County--as it became known after 1920[51]--was to lose territory to the City of Alexandria. This was in 1929 when a decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals[52] rendered May 4, 1929, found in favor of the City of Alexandria which had begun annexation proceedings in December 1927.

[51] Acts of a.s.sembly, 1920, Chapter 241.

[52] Arlington County, _Common Law Order Book 12_, p. 293.

Also, _Deed Book 306_, p. 300.

The Court held that "it is necessary and expedient that the corporate limits of the City of Alexandria should be extended" and that "the territory to be annexed from Arlington County is a reasonably compact body of land and contains no land which is not adapted to city improvement, and the Court being also of the opinion that no land is included which the City will not need in the reasonably near future for development ..."

The Court ordered the annexation[53] to take effect on December 31, 1929. The line thus established remained in effect until January 1, 1966.

[53] See Appendix.

This was the last annexation of territory from Arlington County. A special provision of the Act[54] establishing the County Manager plan of government, adopted by Arlington in 1930, effective January 1, 1932, prevents the annexation of any _part_ of the County (but permits annexation of the _entire_ County after referendum). In 1938, as a further precaution, the legislative delegation representing Arlington County succeeded in having the General a.s.sembly enact a law[55] which prohibits the annexation of territory from any county which would result in reducing the area of that county to less than 60 square miles of highland. Since Arlington has less than 26 square miles, this Act effectively checks any further such encroachments upon its territory.

[54] Acts of a.s.sembly, 1930, Chapter 167; Cf. also, _Code of Virginia, 1950_, t.i.tle 15.1, Sec. 692.

[55] Acts of a.s.sembly, 1938, Chapter 22; Cf. also, _Code of Virginia, 1950_, t.i.tle 15.1, Sec. 1056.

Development on both sides of the 1929 boundary line, construction of streets and notably of the Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway--and especially changes in the channel of Four Mile Run--eventually brought dissatisfaction with that line. In 1962, the Arlington and Alexandria legislative delegations secured enactment by the General a.s.sembly of an Act[56] permitting an adjustment in the boundary to be concluded by mutual agreement between the governing bodies of the County and the City, the agreement to be recorded in the Clerk's Office of both jurisdictions.

[56] Acts of a.s.sembly, 1962, Chapter 314.

Negotiations began after the area affected had been surveyed and the private property which might be the subject of exchange had been appraised. Impetus was given by the need of Arlington for land in connection with enlargement of the County sewage treatment facilities; this land, although on the North side of Four Mile Run fell in Alexandria. Finally, the Arlington County Board gave approval in principle to a draft proposal on April 10, 1965,[57] and on April 13, 1965, the Alexandria City Council followed suit. A public hearing was held on May 5, 1965, but final action was deferred pending refinement of the proposal. In December 1965, the final agreement was recorded[58]

and the transfer of certain publicly owned property approved by the Circuit Court. The net gain to Arlington's area was 167 acres.

[57] Arlington County Board Minute Book XXI, p. 54.

[58] Alexandria _Deed Book_, 641, p. 188 (December 21, 1965); Arlington _Deed Book_, 1609, p. 453 (December 23, 1965); Arlington _Common Law Order Book_ 85, p. 197. For the description of the new boundary, see Appendix.

This procedure for rectifying boundaries between a County and a City is highly unusual in the Virginia experience.

_Arlington's Boundary with the District of Columbia_

No definite effort was made at the time of the recession of Alexandria County to Virginia to draw a boundary line between the County and the remaining portion of the District of Columbia. As noted above, the various acts bringing about the recession referred only to "the territory heretofore ceded by the Commonwealth of Virginia." The actual boundary was of small moment at the time.

Toward the end of the 19th Century, however, the United States Government acquired lands on the Virginia sh.o.r.e of the Potomac largely through the purchase of the Arlington estate. As the 20th Century progressed, roads (notably the Mount Vernon Boulevard and later the George Washington Memorial Parkway) were constructed, bridges and bridge approaches built and, eventually, the Federal Government undertook to construct the National Airport at Gravelly Point below Alexander's Island. A suit[59] over government activity in making a land fill raised questions as to the exact location of the boundary--and indeed as to whether Alexander's Island really was an island or was a peninsula. This case, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 4, 1931, set the boundary line between the District of Columbia and Virginia at the high water mark of the Potomac on the Virginia sh.o.r.e as it existed in 1791.

[59] _Washington Airport_ vs. _Smoot Sand and Gravel Corp_., 283 U.S. 348. Cf. also, _Marine Railroad and Coal Co_. v.

_U.S._, 257 U.S. 47.

But where had that high water mark been? There had been no survey at the time; the sh.o.r.e line had never been marked; and even had it been, the pa.s.sage of time had made many changes in the river front.[60] A Commission was established[61] to deal with this question. The instructions to this Commission were to take into consideration the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, the findings and report of the Maryland-Virginia Commission of 1877[62] and the Maryland-Virginia compact of 1785.[63]

[60] This indefinite boundary line "lies in many places some distance from the Potomac River." _Report No. 895_, H.R., 78th Congress, 1st Session.

[61] 48 U.S. Stat. 453; Virginia Acts of a.s.sembly, 1932, p.

485.

[62] _Code of Virginia, 1950_, t.i.tle 7.1, Sec. 7. This Commission dealt only with the boundary below Jones Point but chose _low water mark_ as the line. The pertinent words of the agreement (ratified by Virginia in 1878) are: "The low water mark on the Potomac to which Virginia has a right in the soil, is to be measured ... from low-water mark at one headland to low water at another, without following indentations, bays, creeks, inlets, or affluent rivers. Virginia is ent.i.tled not only to full dominion over the soil to low water mark on the south sh.o.r.e of the Potomac, but has a right to such use of the river...." Interpretation of this agreement took many years and it was 1930 before the line actually was surveyed and monumented.

[63] _Code of Virginia, 1950_, t.i.tle 7.1, Sec. 7. Cf. also page 9 above.

The Commission acc.u.mulated a large volume of testimony and exhibits and completed its report[64] in 1935. It found that the "fair and proper boundary is the low water mark on the Virginia sh.o.r.e running from headland to headland across creeks and inlets." It pointed out that inasmuch as the mark of 1791 could not be determined the low water mark should be accepted as of this day. It suggested that an exception be made at Roaches Run where the line should run 150 feet west of and parallel to the west line of the Mount Vernon Boulevard.

[64] Report of District of Columbia--Virginia Boundary Commission, 74th Congress, 2nd Session, _House Doc.u.ment_ 374.

Several bills[65] were introduced into Congress to give effect to the decision of the Commission but none was enacted at this time. The completion of the Airport and the Pentagon Building gave urgency to the problem: conflicts of jurisdiction hampered law enforcement and complicated the question of tax collection. Moreover, Virginia was anxious to insure that the liquor control laws of the State and not those of the District of Columbia should be in effect at the National Airport. In 1942, the General a.s.sembly had adopted an Act[66] covering the boundary question, on the a.s.sumption that the bill then pending in Congress would be pa.s.sed. Disagreement over the details of the jurisdiction to be ceded and accepted by Virginia and the United States Government prevented pa.s.sage of a Federal Act until 1945 when Public Law 208 was enacted by the 79th Congress. This was followed by an Act[67] of the Virginia General a.s.sembly repealing the 1942 Act and ratifying the 1945 Federal Act.

[65] 76th Congress, 3rd Session, H.R. 9976; S. 4114. 77th Congress, 1st Session, H.R. 1045; H.R. 5073. 78th Congress, 1st Session, S. 19; H.R. 746; H.R. 3664. The Arlington County Board endorsed H.R. 9976; cf. Minute Book V, p. 423 and VII, p. 500.

[66] Acts of a.s.sembly, 1942, Chapter 267.

[67] Acts of a.s.sembly, 1946, Chapter 26. _Code of Virginia, 1950_, t.i.tle 7.1, Sec. 10.

This law is in effect today. It provides that the boundary line

"shall begin at a point where the northwest boundary of the District of Columbia intercepts the high-water mark of the Virginia sh.o.r.e of the Potomac River and following the present mean high-water mark; thence in a southeasterly direction along the Virginia sh.o.r.e of the Potomac River to Little River, along the Virginia sh.o.r.e of Little River to Boundary Channel, along the Virginia side of Boundary Channel to the main body of the Potomac River, along the Virginia side of the Potomac River across the mouths of all tributaries affected by the tides of the river to Second Street, Alexandria, Virginia, from Second Street to the present established pierhead line, and following said pierhead line to its connection with the District of Columbia-Maryland boundary line; that whenever said mean high-watermark on the Virginia sh.o.r.e is altered by artificial fill and excavations made by the United States, or by alluvion or erosion, then the boundary shall follow the new mean high-water mark on the Virginia sh.o.r.e as altered, or whenever the location of the pierhead line along the Alexandria water front is altered, then the boundary shall follow the new location of the pierhead line."

The Act also provided that all the land on the Virginia side of the Potomac lying between the boundary line as now adopted and the mean high water mark as it existed on January 24, 1791 (wherever that was!) should be ceded to the State of Virginia. The United States, however, reserved concurrent jurisdiction over this area.

Here the matter rests very uneasily today. The exact line was surveyed, monumented, and mapped by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey over the years 1946-1947.[68] However, the working agreements reached by the law enforcement officials of the various jurisdictions concerned have not always proven satisfactory. The long history of the location of the Potomac River boundary of Arlington County cannot yet be said to have reached its end.

[68] Unpublished Report dated March 27, 1947, from Lt. Comdr.

Roswell C. Bolstad, Chief of Party, on Project G-815, Coast and Geodetic Survey, Department of Commerce.