Lorton, Virginia

If only the dirt could talk!  So many changes has happened in this little town just south of Washington, DC.  It is famously known as the area where George Washington lived and died but just 3 miles to the south of Mt. Vernon is such history that dates back farther than just our county, America.
The changes that have taken place since the conception from The United States of America and the beginning of the Lorton, Virginia are incredible that they took place in my back yard.
First and foremost, the town of Lorton was established in 1875 when a man by the name of Joseph Plankett  established an area south of Fairfax County by placing a post office.  Joseph Plankett named the post office Lorton Valley after a place where he and his family had immigrated from in Cumberland County in England.
Lorton and surrounding areas had to change with the construction of the Telegraph Station between Washington DC and Quantico.  Joseph Plankett and his family ran the post mail through this new train station.  This is what helped begin the building of Lorton, Virginia.
During the Civil War father's and son where involved in the fight and women where detained as possible spies due to the close proximity to the rail and water ways.
In the early 1916, the government of the United States proclaimed land in Lorton and built The Lorton Reformatory for serious offenders. Most of the bricks in the construction of the prison was made my prisoners and built by prisoners.  One very interesting point of the Lorton Reformatory is that in 1917 when picketing for the Women Suffrage Movement to vote were being challenged by the National Woman's Party, 168 women where in prisoned at this facility until the constitution was changed.
Another factor in glabolization for the Lorton area is that on the site of the Lorton Reformatory in 1954 began the building of the of USA's Anti-aircraft defense positioning sites for the Nike missiles.  Later on it was confirmed that the Lorton site was a site that contained the Nuclear Nike missiles.  The building of this defense site was due to the increasing tension between the Soviet Union and the United States of America.  The nuclear missiles where removed in 1960 and the site was no longer considered a defense position.  The radar towers remain and are used by the Fairfax County Parks Authority.
Lorton, Virginia is located right outside the gates of Ft. Belvoir and the many global issues that are conducted on this military facility are increasing as the global consequences increase.  Ft. Belvoir is the home of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) which deals with global issues daily.
This is just a small example of how my neighborhood is changing with the times and has become a part of the globalization of our world.