Arlington

/ahr"ling teuhn/, n.

1. a county in NE Virginia, opposite Washington, D.C.: national cemetery. 152,599.

2. a city in N Texas. 160,123.

3. a city in E Massachusetts. 48,219.

4. a town in SE New York. 11,305.

* * *

Unincorporated settlement (pop., 2000: 189,453), northern Virginia, U.S. Lying across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., the city is the capital of Arlington county, which was part of Washington, D.C., from 1789 to 1846, when it was returned to Virginia.

It is the site of Arlington National Cemetery (located on the former estate of Robert E. Lee), Ronald Reagan National Airport, and numerous federal buildings, including the Pentagon.

* * *

▪ Massachusetts, United States

      town (township), Middlesex county, east-central Massachusetts, U.S. It is a northwestern suburb of Boston. Settled in 1635 as part of Cambridge, it was known as Menotomy (from an Algonquian word meaning “swift waters”) until separately incorporated as West Cambridge in 1807. It was renamed for George Washington Parke Custis's Virginia estate in 1867, when it was also reincorporated. Its early economy was dependent on market gardening, the shipping of ice (cut from Spy Pond), and the manufacture of textile cards. The town developed as a residential suburb with the arrival of the railway from Boston in 1846. The local economy is dominated by services and wholesale and retail trade, and there also is some light manufacturing.

      Arlington's Jason Russell House (1680) was the scene of a fierce skirmish with the British in which 12 minutemen were killed on April 19, 1775. Their graves are marked in the old cemetery of the town's Unitarian Church. Area 6 square miles (16 square km). Pop. (1990) 44,630; (2000) 42,389.

▪ Texas, United States

      city, Tarrant county, northern Texas, U.S., between Fort Worth (west) and Grand Prairie and Dallas (east). Caddo Indians, the first known settlers in the region, were the victims of westward expansion. An early white settlement (1840), on an Indian council site, was called Bird's Fort. Continuing disputes between Indians and would-be settlers ultimately led to the Battle of Village Creek (1841), in which more than 200 Indian lodges were burned and the Caddo routed. The Republic of Texas in 1843 signed a peace treaty with nine Indian tribes at what is now Arlington. The city itself was laid out by railroad men in 1876 and named for General Robert E. Lee's home in Virginia.

      Once known for its cotton ginning and agricultural products, Arlington is primarily an industrial and commercial centre; it has automotive and aerospace industries that developed after 1950, with an accompanying rapid increase in population. It is the seat of the University of Texas (Texas, University of) at Arlington (1895) and the Arlington Baptist College (1939). Six Flags Over Texas, a large amusement park, is located there, and the city is the home of the Texas Rangers professional baseball team. Lake Arlington, a 2,275-acre (921-hectare) reservoir that provides drinking water for the city, is also a popular recreation site. Inc. 1884. Pop. (2000) city, 332,969; Fort Worth–Arlington MD, 1,710,318; Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington MSA, 5,161,544; (2005 est.) city, 362,805; Fort Worth–Arlington MD, 1,926,352; Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington MSA, 5,819,475.

▪ county, Virginia, United States

      urban county in northern Virginia, U.S., across the Potomac River (southwest) from Washington, D.C., with which it is connected by five bridges (Francis Scott Key, Arlington Memorial, George Mason, Theodore Roosevelt, and Rochambeau Memorial), and adjoining the city of Alexandria (south).

      Established as Bellehaven (later Alexandria) County, it was ceded to the Federal Government in 1789 and became part of the District of Columbia; the county was returned to Virginia in 1846 and was renamed Arlington in 1920 for the former estate of the Custis-Lee families. Arlington has developed from a number of small villages (including Arlington, the county seat) into an integral part of metropolitan Washington. Governed as a unit, it has no incorporated places.

      One of the smallest counties in the nation, Arlington covers 24 square miles (62 square km) of which about 20 percent is federal property occupied by Arlington National Cemetery, Washington National Airport, Ft. Myer, and the Pentagon (Department of Defense) and other government offices. The county has become a residential and bustling business community with clusters of high-rise buildings and some light manufactures (electric components, scientific instruments, machinery). Housing developments include Ballston, Buckingham, Cherrydale, Clarendon, Columbia Pike, East Falls, Fairlington, Rosslyn, and Westover. Marymount University (Roman Catholic) was founded (1950) in Arlington. Pop. (1990) 170,897; (1994 est.) 174,603.

* * *