How Hurricane Agnes Led to Today’s Shirlington Village

South Walter Reed Drive bridge washed out by Hurricane Agnes in 1972.

I was in Norway when the news about Hurricane Agnes came.

June 1972 was going along nicely. I was in Stavanger, Norway on behalf of Intelsat, a global satellite organization. This was for an international Board of Governors meeting and I was enjoying the Mid Night Sun. I just had an excellent freshly baked salmon with wonderful sauce and freshly baked bread at a Norwegian monastery and all was right with the world. Later than evening we would be celebrating with a bonfire, great food and plenty of aquavit and would enjoy a mid-night sun. But then the call came in to my colleague, who lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. He learned that Washington, D.C. was flooded and that his basement had become a swimming pool. When I talked to my wife and daughter, I was relieved to learn they were high and dry, but the nearby Four Mile Run was a raging river that had washed away the bridge at South Walter Reed Drive and flooded Shirlington, Arlandria, and Crystal City. Other parts of Arlington were also flooded and for a time the 14th Street Bridge into D.C. was under water. Hurricane Agnes had been downgraded to a tropical depression, by the time it hit Arlington, yet it was still was able to wreck millions of dollars of damages.

By the time I was able to fly home, the flood had subsided, but there was wide spread destruction. The Virginia Department of Transportation managed to “Gerry rig” a way to move traffic over South Walter Reed Drive by putting into place a “temporary” one lane bridge. But “temporary” became months and then years.

By 1973 there was public concerns about the bottleneck to traffic as cars had to wait many minutes to get across a rickety and dangerous bridge. My friend and colleague Warren Stambaugh, had decided to run for the VA House of Delegates, and asked me to be his campaign manager. I agreed and urged that he not only campaign on lower sales taxes for food and medicine but also to run a petition drive to get the bridge restored and also call for action to revitalize the Four Mile Run corridor and the Shirlington Shopping Center area that had been spiraling downward with shops empty or reduced to selling remainders. There was ever dwindling sales. The loss of the bridge was certainly not helping the neighborhood.

The petition campaign that ensued collected some two thousand plus signatures. Commitments were made to rebuild the bridge, and a joint Federal and local funding from Arlington and Alexandria put in place. This was a $76 million flood control plan for Four Mile Run corridor.

But this was only the start of what I call the Shirlington Renaissance. Stambaugh’s winning campaign to go to Richmond surprised a lot of people including Warren and myself. But for me it was a spur to do much more. What came next was amazing. This led to the design and building of a new bridge across Four Mile Run at South Walter Reed Drive. Excavated rock from the tunneling undertaken to support Metro construction was key. This rock was repurposed to do at least three things. First, it was used to create flood control rip-rapping along Four Mile Run. Second, Metro excavated rock was used to build a decorative berm to screen the unsightly Arlington County Property Yard from the Shirlington Shopping Center area and the roadway. Finally, some larger boulders were use in landscaping the Jeanie Dean Park alongside Four Mile Run.

And the renewal of this area that finally began to happen in 1974 only picked up steam. Newly elected Va. House Del. Warren Stambaugh worked with the VA. Transportation Department plus Congressman Joseph Fisher and the County Board and staff all helped to get the funding. This was the comprehensive flood control program for 2.3 miles of the Four Mile Run. This measure brought $51 million from the Federal Government and $12 million dollars in local funding from Alexandria and Arlington Counties and the State of Virgina. $63 million may sound like a small number today, but in 2025 is represents $410 million.

Today this area is part of a parklike landscape that connects via parks and natural trails that stretch all the way from the Blue Ridge Mountains via the W&OD trail to the Potomac just South of the Reagan National Airport. The “Chain of Parks” that link this wooded trail system in Arlington began with a plan developed back in 1935 as documented by historian Martin Suydam.

Key beneficiaries of this project today are the now-thriving Shirlington Village and the old Hume School which the Arlington Historical Society now calls home. Both of these areas were hugely flooded by Agnes.

In 1976, I was honored to be elected President of the Arlington County Civic Federation and also served as President of the Alcova Heights neighborhood organization. During my term of office, we participated in the bi-centennial parade and undertook a beautification effort that led to the sale of over a thousand crepe myrtle trees and allowed plantings of pines and flowering trees in public areas. During this time, we, with volunteer efforts, sought to revitalize declining areas of Arlington. This included not only Shirlington, but also the Columbia Pike corridor and Parkington that led to today’s Ballston Metro area. I managed, through acquaintances, to recruit noted architect Arthur Cotton Moore on a pro bono basis to survey these areas to see if he might envision a new way forward for these areas. Moore, who is noted for his Canal Square restoration effort in Georgetown and Thomas Jefferson and John Adams buildings at the Library of Congress buildings.[iii]  developed an exciting plan for a “New Shirlington.”

This plan envisioned the adding of a fountain and ponding area in the central mall area. It would have repurposed the Best Buys Retail Outlet building into a number of shops and businesses, and many other innovative features was never built. This citizen volunteer and Arlington Staff initiated process led to flexible site zoning that could be applied to allow the addition of apartments and condos, shopping restaurants, entertainment, cultural and pedestrian areas as well as parking structures. This “mixed use” zoning arrangement was the start of what became known as “Smart Planning” and was a key feature of the Long-Range County Improvement Program. This was the brain child of the two Arlington County Board Members Joe Wholey and Joseph Fisher who co-chaired this panel. As ACCF Chair I served on this landmark panel that served to shape the form of Metro Stops throughout Arlington. It also related to 5-year planning efforts in such areas as parks and recreation planning--nd much more. Unfortunately, I am the only living member of this land-breaking effort, since I was also the youngest and most junior participant.

Moore’s inspiring design gave birth to a new vision of what Shirlington could become. What followed has been amazing.  Arlington County bond funding has now led to the integrated Shirlington Library and new Horizon Theater facility. We have seen the relocation of WETA headquarters to one of the new Shirlington buildings, the rezoning and site plan approvals to add a mixture of high-rise office and residential and commercial use buildings, and a string of exciting restaurants. This creative mix of uses has transformed a down-at-the-heels old shopping center to “Shirlington Village” that is always bustling with people, dogs, outdoor displays, giant chess sets, public WiFi, and a tribute to WETA Founder Elizabeth Campbell, and VA State Legislator Ed Campbell. As Chair of the 100th anniversary of the Arlington County Civic Federation celebrations we named Elizabeth Campbell the Arlington Citizen of the Century. As Chair of the newly IT Advisory Commission our Commission, I worked with Arlington staff to bring broadband fiber optic services to this area as part of the new County fiber optic network. Other County planning staff, bond issues and County Board support managed to add new County facilities such as the Barcroft Recreational facilities and Animal Welfare League building along the now bustling Four Mile Run corridor in South Arlington.

On November 22, 1975 the Northern Virginia Sun ran a major story entitled “Rebirth.” It pictured Arthur Cotton Moore’s plans and architectural drawings that envisioned a reconfiguration of the 26-acre site.

Arthur Cotton Moore's drawings of mixed-use development of Shirlington.

This was accompanied with an editorial saying: “While the sickness of a shopping center has been painful to see, we hope for a miraculous recovery….” It also went on to say that the mixed-used zoning was critical to success and urged approval of this innovative new way to create a thriving and lively community. Fortunately, due to leadership by Joe Wnoley, Joseph Fisher, Warren Stambaugh, plus Jeanie Dean, Jim Pendergrass, and John Robinson from the Green Valley Community, and many others that worked on this effort, all our efforts paid off. We have both a mixed-use zoning ordinance that has been used many times over at Metro Stops and a very successful Shirlington, Village.