Columbia Pike dates to 1810 when the
U.S. Congress chartered a turnpike Company to build three separate roads through the newly formed
District of Columbia to outlying destinations. One of these roads was to be built through a portion of the District of Columbia that had previously been part of Virginia. This portion was then known as Alexandria County, D.C. (now
Arlington County, Virginia). The purpose of this road was to provide access westward from the new
Long Bridge that predated the
14th Street Bridge complex to the Little River Turnpike Road, now
Virginia State Route 236. The new road was built on a pre-existing cow path as the
Washington Graveled Turnpike and was also known as the Washington Road, the Columbian Road, and the Arlington Turnpike. The
U.S. Department of Agriculture paved the road with
concrete in 1928 from the bridge west to Palmer's Hill in Barcroft as part of an experimental testing program. Columbia Pike was first numbered as
State Route 720 in 1930 from
U.S. Route 1 near the Long Bridge west for around 1 mile (1.6 km). In the
1933 renumbering, it was renumbered State Route 244 and the numbering was extended first to
State Route 7 at
Bailey's Crossroads and then, between 1934 and 1937, further west to its current terminus at SR 236 in Annandale. With the construction of the
Pentagon Columbia Pike was replaced by the Shirley Highway as the Virginia approach to the Long Bridge/14th Street Bridge. By 1944, SR 244 was truncated at the Pentagon; the piece curving away from the original alignment became a state highway in 1964. Until the 1990s, Columbia Pike accommodated rush hour traffic by reversing the direction of one lane using overhead signals. In 2002, Arlington County adopted the Columbia Pike Initiative, a revitalization plan for the three-and-a-half mile corridor in Arlington. The plan called for development of a high-capacity transit system. The Columbia Pike Initiative was followed in 2003 by adoption of the Form Based Code, which guides development along Columbia Pike. In 2004, the Columbia Pike Street Space Planning Task Force recommended future transit operate in mixed traffic and that the transitway be located in the curb lanes. Recent efforts by the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization include the replacement of older traffic signals with newer and more aesthetic ones, and the addition of brick texture to crosswalks. County officials also teamed up with the
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to increase mass transit service along the corridor. This new program called
Pike Ride remodeled bus stops and doubled bus frequency along Columbia Pike. In 2006, the Arlington County and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved plans to bring
streetcars to Columbia Pike along an either a five or six mile stretch from the Pentagon to the
Skyline area. VDOT, however, refused to allow a streetcar on a primary route and associated redevelopment projects were delayed by the lengthy review and oversight processes required for state-maintained routes, creating friction with the Arlington County government. Thus, by their request, of SR 244—nearly its entire length in the county—were removed from the primary state highway system at the September 2010 meeting of
Commonwealth Transportation Board. It is now the unsigned County Route 23, a part of Arlington's locally maintained road system. of Columbia Pike, containing the eastern interchange with SR 27, remain in the primary system as a discontinuous segment of SR 244. However, SR 244 continues to be fully posted as a through route in Arlington as its signs were never removed. In 2016, Arlington County proposed a "premium transit network" down Columbia Pike, using frequent buses in mixed traffic (not dedicated lanes) and purpose-built stops in place of streetcars. The westernmost third of the proposed twenty-four bus stops are open as of summer 2024. ==Major intersections==