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Reston Information
Reston is a planned community and an unincorporated census-designated place located in western Fairfax County, Virginia in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Community services are provided by the Reston Association. As of the 2000 census, the community had a total population of 56,407. Although Reston is not a city and does not have a traditional central business district, the Reston Town Center is becoming a focal point for business and transportation connections within the community, with several high-rise office buildings, restaurants, a cinema, a hotel, and shops. Reston also straddles the booming Dulles Technology Corridor and is home to the world headquarters of three Fortune 500 corporations, (NVR, Sprint Nextel, Sallie Mae), as well as the United States Geological Survey and the National Wildlife Federation.
The growth and development of Reston has been monitored by newspaper
articles, national magazines, and scholarly journals on architecture and land
use. In 1967 the First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Lyndon Johnson, came to
Reston to take a walking tour along its pathways, as part of her interest in
beautification projects. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
have visited Reston elementary schools that were named in their honor. The
Washington Post recently featured a road trip to Reston and a relatively new
website "Beyond DC" has a page devoted to Reston with almost 150 photos.
Reston is the location for a regional government center serving citizens in the
northern part of Fairfax County. The Reston Regional Library, Reston Hospital
Center, and a modern homeless shelter are located nearby. The Reston police
station is also the office headquarters of the locally elected supervisor of the
Hunter Mill District within the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
A strain of Ebola called Ebola Reston, a level 4 virus, was named after the
community, after monkeys imported from the Philippines that were in a Reston
medical research facility were found to have the virus in 1989. The monkeys were
euthanized and the facility was decontaminated but eventually was torn down and
rebuilt. Author Richard Preston later wrote a "nonfiction bio-thriller" called
The Hot Zone about this event.
Reston experienced increasing traffic congestion as it grew in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. This was a time when Reston's population was growing but the
Dulles Toll Road had not been built. Commuter traffic between Reston and
Washington created serious traffic congestion on the roads that connected Reston
to Washington DC. In 1984 the toll road opened and in 1986 the West Falls Church
Washington Metro station opened. Most recently the Fairfax County Parkway, a
major north-south artery, was opened.
Reston is one of just a handful of communities in the U.S. that has been
designated a backyard wildlife habitat community. Usually this designation is
for single homes.
As a part of Fairfax County, Reston is served by the Fairfax County Public
Schools system. Reston has one high school within its boundaries, South Lakes
High School. On the same lot as the high school is Reston's only junior high
school: Langston Hughes Middle School.
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