NORTHERN  VIRGINIA - ALEXANDRIA

Alexandria is one of the few cities in America attempting to preserve archaeological sites within an urban environment.  The city operates a lab and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, where visitors can gain an appreciation of the scope of the archeological work.  The mere fact that such a program exists prompts developers to be sensitive to the significance of artifacts uncovered by their bulldozers.  Many builders in Alexandria have given archeologists the opportunity to examine promising discoveries before they are lost to 20th-century progress. 

The museum’s laboratory displays the latest finds, but this is more a spot to observe conservators and archeologists at work.  Visitors can check out photographs of current field activity and watch videos of recent digs.

Alexandria's history as a city goes back to the mid-1700s.  George Washington, who considered Alexandria his home town, surveyed the city's waterfront as early as 1748, just one year before the city was founded.  At that time the banks of the Potomac River rose just over Lee Street, then called Water Street.  When larger ships began plying the river, residents filled in the land to deeper water, extending the riverbank by 100 yards.

The city’s maritime heritage is preserved at the Trans Potomac Canal Center. Like so much of the South, Alexandria was figuratively and literally drained by the Civil War.  The city built the canal after Congress granted the necessary charter in 1830.  Alexandria was then linked with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal at Georgetown. When Federal troops occupied Alexandria during the Civil War, they drained the Alexandria Canal.  Although it was refilled after the war, it never regained its prewar prosperity.  The canal is commemorated by the restoration of Lift Lock and Pool No. One.

Although there is plenty of action on the Potomac River, it also serves as artistic inspiration to some 175 artists who have studios at the Torpedo Factory Art Center.  An unimposing structure used during both world wars to manufacture torpedoes and later as a storehouse for captured war records, the factory has been renovated into a bright and busy art center. Navy Seabees presented a talisman from the past when the center opened.  The Seabees' housewarming present was a sickly green 3,000-pound Mark 14 torpedo case made at this factory in 1944.  Now the once drab factory has a central atrium surrounded by classrooms and studios. A ceiling skylight provides natural light for some of the area's most talented artists.

More than three-quarters of a million visitors each year enjoy the open door policy practiced by most of these working artists.  You can watch them at work and make purchases at prices lower than those at downtown galleries.  You'll see a wide diversity of painters, sculptors, potters, fiber artists, printers, stained-glass workers, jewelers, batik designers, musical instrument makers and other artists and craftspeople. The Torpedo Factory Art Center is open daily 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.  It's located on the river in Old Town historic district just north of the intersection of King and Union streets at 105 N. Union Street. 

Docked behind the Torpedo Art Factory are Potomac Riverboat Company excursion boats that take visitors on 40-minute tours of Alexandria’s waterfront and 90-minute tours past Washington’s imposing monuments; call (703) 548-9000 for schedules and rates.  Docked at the foot of Prince Street just down from the Center is the Dandy Restaurant Cruise Ship.  Brunch, lunch, dinner cruises and specialty trips are scheduled year-round; call (703) 683-6976 for details.

Directions:  From I-495/95 take Exit 1, U.S. 1 north into Alexandria.  Turn right at King Street and head down to the river where you turn left for the Torpedo Factory Art Center.

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