Alexandria Travel Guide
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5 miles S of Washington, D.C.; 95 miles N of Richmond
Founded by a group of Scottish tobacco merchants, the seaport town of Alexandria came into being on a sunny day in July 1749, when a 60-acre tract of land was auctioned off in 1/2 acre lots. As you stroll the brick sidewalks and cobblestone streets of highly gentrified Old Town, the city's official historic district, you'll see more than 2,000 buildings dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. You can visit Gadsby's Tavern, where 2 centuries ago the men who created this nation discussed politics, freedom, and revolution over tankards of ale. You can stand in the doorway of the tavern where George Washington reviewed his troops for the last time, walk past Robert E. Lee's boyhood home, and sit in the pews of Christ Church where both men worshipped.
Today, Old Town Alexandria boasts an abundance of quaint shops, boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, and tourists (not to mention hordes of late-teens hanging out on Fri and Sat nights). But in this history-conscious "mother lode of Americana," the past is being ever-increasingly restored in an ongoing archaeological and historical research program. Indeed, if they weren't instantly shocked back to death by the cars jockeying for prized parking spaces, Washington and Lee would still recognize their old hometown.
