Alexandria Real Estate Listings, Alexandria Homes for Sale, Alexandria Condos, Virginia, VA

Alexandria Real Estate Overview

Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 128,284. It is located on the west bank of the Potomac River, six miles south of downtown Washington, DC.

Like the rest of Northern Virginia, as well as southern Maryland, modern Alexandria has been shaped by its proximity to the nation's capital. It is largely populated by professionals working in the federal civil service, the U.S. military, or for one of the many private companies which contract to provide services to the federal government. The latter are known locally as beltway bandits, after the Capital Beltway, an interstate highway that circles Washington, D.C. One of Alexandria's largest employers is the U.S. Department of Defense. Others include the Institute for Defense Analyses and the Center for Naval Analyses.

Alexandria is bounded on the east by the Potomac River, on the north and northwest by Arlington County, and on the south by Fairfax County. The western portions of the city were annexed from those two entities beginning in the 1930s.

Areas in Alexandria

Old Town

Old Town, in the eastern and southeastern areas of Alexandria and on the Potomac River, is the oldest section of the city, originally laid out in 1749, and is an historic district. Old Town is chiefly known for its historic (and expensive) town houses, its art galleries and antique shops, and its restaurants and nightlife, although it is in reality a diverse area that includes substantial public housing. Old Town is laid out on a grid plan of substantially square blocks.

Del Ray

The area to the northwest of Old Town, formerly in the separate town of Potomac, is popularly known as Del Ray, although that name properly belongs to one of many communities (including Hume, Mount Ida, and Saint Elmo) in that area. The housing stock is a mix of single-family houses, duplexes, townhouses, and apartment buildings.

The community has a more hipster and boho flair than Old Town. While diverse, it has experienced substantial gentrification since redevelopment began in Potomac Yard in the mid-1990s.

Del Ray is laid out in a grid plan independent of that of Old Town, with long, narrow blocks.

West End

Alexandria's West End includes areas annexed in the 1950s. It is the most typically suburban part of Alexandria, with a street hierarchy of winding roads and culs-de-sac. The section of Duke Street in the West End is known for a high-density residential area known to locals as the "Condo Canyon" and for its concentration of both strip and enclosed shopping malls.

Alexandria Addresses

The addressing system in Alexandria is not uniform and reflects the consolidation of several originally separate communities into a single city. In Old Town Alexandria, building numbers are assigned north and south from King Street and west (only) from the Potomac River. In the areas formerly in the Town of Potomac, such as Del Ray and St. Elmo, building numbers are assigned east and west from Commonwealth Avenue and north (only) from King Street. In the western parts of the city, building numbers are assigned north and south from Duke Street.

The ZIP code prefix 223 uniquely identifies the Alexandria postal area. However, the Alexandria postal area extends well into Fairfax County and includes more addresses outside of the city than inside of it. Delivery areas have ZIP codes 22301 through 22312, 22314, and 22315, with other ZIP codes in use for post office boxes and large mailers. ZIP codes are not assigned in any particular geographic order.

Alexandria Transportation

Roads

Alexandria is bisected north and south by Virginia State Highway 7, known in most of the city as the major thoroughfare of King Street, and in its western portions as Leesburg Pike. Interstate Highway 95/495 (the Capital Beltway), including the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac, approximately parallels the city's southern boundary with Fairfax County. Interstate 395 crosses through the western part of the city. Other major routes include U.S. Highway 1, named Jefferson Davis Highway and Patrick and Henry Streets (after Patrick Henry), the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and Duke Street (Virginia State Highway 236).

Airports

Alexandria is located just south of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington County. As with other Washington suburbs, Alexandria is also served by Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, and by Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport near Baltimore, Maryland.

Rail

Alexandria Union Station, the city's historic train station, is served by both Amtrak intercity and Virginia Railway Express regional rail service. The station is directly adjacent to the King Street Metrorail station, at the convergence of the Blue and Yellow Lines. Three other Metrorail stations lie within the city limits: Braddock Road, Van Dorn Street, and Eisenhower Avenue.

The traditional boundary between Old Town and the latterly annexed sections of the city followed the railway now owned by CSX Transportation.

Alexandria Recreation

The city has a distributed park system with approximately 950 acres spread across 70 major parks and 30 recreation center of which Chinquapin is one the largest, offering facilities for swimming, tennis, racquetball and other sports. The city also organizes several sports leagues throughout the year including volleyball, softball and basketball. Alexandria is also unusual in that Cameron Run Regional Park includes a water park with a wave pool and water slides, as well as a miniature golf course and batting cage - facilities usually operated by private companies. A portion of the Mount Vernon Trail, a popular bike path, runs through Old Town near the Potomac River.

Alexandria Education

The city is served by the Alexandria City Public Schools system and by the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College. Virginia Tech's Alexandria Architecture Center is located on Prince Street in Old Town, offering graduate programs in Urban Affairs and Planning, Public and International Affairs, as well as Architecture.

Alexandria Neighborhoods

Alexandria West, Braddock Heights, Braddock Road Metro, Cameron Station, Clover, Del Ray, Eisenhower East, Fairlington, Kingstowne, Landmark, Metro-King St. and Eisenhower Ave., North Ridge, Northeast, Old Town, Old Town-North, Potomac Greens, Potomac West, Potomac Yard, Rosemont, Seminary Hill, Southwest Quadrant, Stonegate, Taylor Run, Van Dorn.

Also: City of Alexandria, Virginia Official Website