The Virginia Department of Transportation constructed the $2.5 million Custis Trail beside I-66 from 1978-1982. VDOT originally did not plan to build the trail, but added it to the I-66 project to help the highway gain federal approval and funding after the federal government rejected the initial plans. East of Glebe Road, I-66 and the Custis Trail were both built on the former right of way of the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad's Rosslyn spur, which the highway department had purchased in 1962. In late 1972, the county received permission to build a 1.3 mile temporary, natural surface bike trail on the right-of-way east of Spout Run, which was called the Spout Run Bike Trail. The trail was to open by early 1973 and was in place by 1976. The Custis Trail replaced this. Construction on the Custis Trail and on the highway began on August 8, 1978. The trail opened in the summer of 1982. In October, the highway was opened to cyclists and pedestrians for one day and in late December the highway opened for good. The Custis Trail originally extended for miles to Lee Highway in East Falls Church. However, the section of the Custis Trail that travels between Bon Air Park and East Falls Church was later informally re-branded to become a part of the W&OD Trail. On June 11, 1988, an extension of the trail and a bridge over the George Washington Memorial Parkway opened at the trail's eastern end. The extension and the bridge connected the trail to the Mount Vernon Trail, a -long shared use path that travels along the Parkway near the west side of the Potomac River to Alexandria and George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. In 2018-19, VDOT, in cooperation with the Arlington County government, removed a lane of Lee Highway near the eastern end of the trail. The lane's removal enabled VDOT and the County to increase the width of that section of the trail from to and to widen the trail's buffer from feet to.
Description
The Custis Trail's eastern trailhead is at the trail's lowest elevation. The trail connects at the trailhead to the Mount Vernon Trail, which provides access to three Potomac River crossings into downtown Washington, D.C., and the National Mall:
west of the trailhead, the Custis Trail connects at North Lynn Street to the Francis Scott Key Bridge, thus creating connections to Georgetown, to the southern end of the Capital Crescent Trail and to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath. The trail then follows a hilly route along I-66 through Arlington County until reaching its western trailhead at the trail's junction with the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail at Bon Air Park near Four Mile Run. The western trailhead is east of North Patrick Henry Drive's overpass of I-66, the W&OD Trail and Four Mile Run. The trail reaches its highest elevation near the North Harrison Street overpass of I-66 and the trail, west of Ballston. The trail descends from that high point to the western trailhead, whose elevation is. The Custis Trail crosses I-66 three times along its route:
Within the Four Mile Run underpass near the trail's western trailhead.
The trail has five at-grade street crossings, all of which in a section of the trail that travels next to the westbound traffic lanes of Lee Highway in and near Rosslyn. After the trail crosses I-66 on the Lee Highway overpass west of Rosslyn, the trail travels next to I-66 and crosses all streets on the highway's underpasses and overpasses. The trail has a -long spur that travels east to Fairfax Drive along the westbound entrance ramp to I-66 in Ballston. The spur connects to Ballston's streets and to the Bluemont Junction Trail, a -long rail trail that meets the W&OD Trail and the Four Mile Run Trail at Bluemont Park.
Name
The trail is sometimes called the "Nellie Custis Trail" or the "Martha Custis Trail", but there is no clear record that the trail was named for any particular person. In 1980, there were discussions of naming I-66 for the Custis family, to which George Washington was related by marriage. The highway was eventually named the "Custis Memorial Parkway" east of the Beltway. At the time that I-66 was opening, Virginia was unofficially calling the road the "Martha Custis Parkway". In 1981, at least one columnist thought the road - and by extension the trail - was being named specifically for Nellie. The trail has also been called the "Custis Memorial Parkway Trail".
