Reston
Reston Information
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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.