There’s a section of Arlington National Cemetery, near the Iwo Jima Memorial, that contains graves unlike any other. The graves belong not to soldiers, but to freed slaves who lived on the grounds after the Civil War, in a thriving “Freedman’s Village.”
The village was home to more than 1,100 former slaves, including the black abolitionist Sojourner Truth, who spent a year there, on what was once the estate of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s family.
You may not realize it, but Arlington was once home to the biggest, baddest radio towers in the world.
The U.S. Navy Radio Station was built in 1910 on what is now Columbia Pike, overlooking the nation’s capital. The 600-foot high, 100,000 watt towers were monsters, able to transmit signals much farther than your standard AM or FM broadcast today.
State Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D), who represents Arlington, went on MSNBC today to criticize Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) for proclaiming April “Confederate History Month.”
Did you know that our first president owned 1,200 acres of land in Northern Virginia, much of it in Arlington? If you don’t believe it, head out on a historical trek to find the George Washington Survey Tree.
Okay, the tree is long gone, but a marker was erected at the site where it once stood. It’s located just off the W&OD trail, near the Glencarlyn and Barcroft sections of Arlington.
