Historical Note

The Land and River Improvement Company of New Alexandria was incorporated in 1888 with the main goal of establishing a successful business town. Following the completion of the first electrically powered trolley system in the United States in Richmond, VA, this mode of transportation became very attractive and stood as a symbol of modern technology, causing many other cities to begin construction of their own systems. Throughout the 1890s, the Land and River Improvement Company purchased a variety of properties in "New Alexandria" and the outer-Washington, D.C. area including Woodlawn, The Dyke Marsh, and others.

The founders of the Land and River Improvement Company carefully planned the town of "New Alexandria" with the first industry, the Deis Manufacturing Company, arriving in June of 1892. Over the course of the next two decades, the streetcar line was expanded on, a variety of industries moved to the area, including the Alexandria Woodenware Company, Mount Vernon Construction Company, and others, and the area itself seemed to flourish. However, after the streetcar burned in 1912 and the canal in Alexandria silted up, halting further industry, the Land and River Improvement Company abandoned the project and subsequently sold much of the land to a variety of sources, declaring bankruptcy in 1928. The present-day George Washington Memorial Parkway runs through New Alexandria where the streetcar system had previously been constructed.

Source: History of New Alexandria

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