A History of the Boundaries of Arlington County, Virginia

What we now call Arlington County was once a shifting puzzle of colonial jurisdictions, changing hands between eight different counties over two centuries before finally becoming its own entity. This meticulous 1967 document traces that remarkable journey from 1608, when the area first appears in colonial records, through theRevolutionary era and into the modern twentieth century. The narrative reaches its dramatic climax with the 1846 retrocession: the extraordinary moment when a chunk of Virginia, having been ceded to create the nation's capital, was handed back to the Commonwealth. The book details how these antique boundaries still shape the region today, examining the legal disputes, legislative battles, and urban development pressures that forced mapmakers to redraw lines again and again. For anyone curious why Arlington exists as it does, or why DC's border curves so strangely, this detailed reference fills in the forgotten stories behind those lines on a map.