Gravelly Point

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Airplane taking off, as seen from Gravelly Point. It is beginning a left turn to avoid restricted airspace over Washington, D.C.

Gravelly Point is a park in Arlington, Virginia, United States. It is located north of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, along the George Washington Parkway, and across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

Today, the park is a primary intersection on weekends of boaters, cyclists, and airplane-spotters. Its unique location just a few hundred feet from the north end of Reagan's runway 1/19 makes it one of the best spots in the United States for airplane-spotting.

Originally, the area known as Gravelly Point was where Captain John Alexander built a home called Abingdon in 1746. Abingdon was purchased in 1778 by John Parke Custis, the adopted stepson of President George Washington. It was the birthplace of Washington’s beloved granddaughter, Eleanor Parke Custis. Abington was destroyed by fire in 1930 and the ruins stabilized. In 1998, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority preserved the site and created an exhibit of artifacts found there in the Exhibit Hall, located in Terminal A of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.