A New Trail on a Well-Worn Path: Alexandria, Virginia

ECW welcomes back guest author Paula Tarnapol Whitacre

On February 10, I stood among a group of one hundred people or so at Waterfront Park in Alexandria, Virginia, for the official ribbon-cutting of the city’s new African American Waterfront Heritage Trail. It is 2.3 miles long, with 30 stops and 11 interpretative signs to visit in person or online via a Story Map and website.

“The trail was already here,” pointed out McArthur Myers, a member of the trail committee and early advocate of developing it. “Now there’s signage to tell the story.” From the 18th century through today, Blacks have lived and worked in neighborhoods, businesses, and public spaces alongside and near the waterfront on the Potomac River.

The signs “engage residents and visitors with new and compelling ways of learning Alexandria’s complex history to keep the past alive in the present and for the future,” said Mayor Justin Wilson, reading from a city proclamation to commemorate the establishment of the trail.

The African American Waterfront Heritage Trail consists of two segments. It accommodates visitors at all levels of interest—from tourists who stroll and glance at a sign or two to those who go online to read the footnotes that document the research behind each topic. Eleven stops are on the North Trail Route; nineteen are on the South Trail Route. They both start in Waterfront Park at the foot of King Street, Alexandria’s main east-west thoroughfare. Note that both segments are up-and-back and not a circuit, and visitors should choose their shoes accordingly. There are lots of places to rest along the way, whether on an outside bench or at a restaurant.

Civil War-Related Stops

About one-half of the stops describe places relevant before and during the Civil War. A few examples:

South Route, Stop 2: Domestic Slave Trade in Alexandria

This sign marks where slave traders, including Isaac Franklin and John Armfield, corralled Black enslaved people onto ships to be sold in New Orleans. (Editor’s note: The images are hard to read, so you’ll just have to see the signs in person on your next visit! Still, we included the images to show the formatting and concepts.)

South Route, Stop 9: African American Workers on the Railroad during the Civil War

Placed next to an old tunnel that was part of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, this sign marks the contributions of the Construction Corps tasked with building and repair work. These laborers were almost all freedmen who had escaped slavery by coming into Federal-occupied Alexandria.

North Route, Stop 3: Retrocession

This sign explains that Alexandria was part of the District of Columbia from 1801 through 1846, when it “retroceded” or returned to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

And more….

The Office of Historic Alexandria also launched a book in early February titled African American Emancipation in an Occupied City, funded in part through a grant from PBS during production of the show “Mercy Street.” (As a contributor of one of the chapters, I rue the cancellation of the series!) The book, available online through the OHA website, amplifies some of the stories told along the trail.

A number of other walking, driving, and bicycle tours can take visitors around the city to see Civil War sites, both self-guided and with guides. Stops of interest include Fort Ward Park (constructed in 1861 and now the best-preserved fort of the system that made up the Defenses of Washington), Alexandria National Cemetery (established in 1862), and the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial (established in 1864).

If you visit Alexandria in person or online, let me know what you think about the city and the depiction of its history.

Paula Tarnapol Whitacre contributed a chapter to the book African American Emancipation in an Occupied City (Office of Historic Alexandria, 2023). In 2017, she published a biography of abolitionist Julia Wilbur titled A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time: Julia Wilbur’s Struggle for Purpose (Potomac Books, 2017). She is currently researching a book that focuses on Alexandria, Virginia, during the Civil War and Reconstruction.