https://massengale.typepad.com > Waterford, Virginia,
Dec 2003, late afternoon

Introduction

Waterford is an old town in Loudoun County. The urbanism is very simple: two main streets intersect at the town center. The photo tour starts at the top of one of the streets, goes to the other end of the street, and then comes back to the start of the cross street. A couple of commercial buildings and a few houses on the cross street are also shown.

Only a few short streets have been added to the plan, so that many houses open up in the back to the fields behind them. Walking down the streets, you catch views of the fields between the houses.

The older houses at the center are very simple. There is nothing in either the making of the streets or the houses that can not easily be done today.

Since the construction of a new highway to Washington and Northern Virginia, Loudoun County has become one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. The previous Democratic government tried to stop sprawl, but the current Republican administration in the county has opened the gates wide.

The local model of Loudoun is never followed. Instead Loudoun gets mile after mile of the National Automobile Slum, the same in Virginia as in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, North Carolina, California and everywhere else.