Long before the shops, apartments, and Metro station, Potomac Yard was one of the busiest railroad classification yards on the East Coast — a 136-mile maze of track where, at its WWII peak, workers sorted more than 10,000 freight cars a day. Here's how a working rail yard became one of Alexandria's fastest-changing neighborhoods.

Nicholas Trist was fired from his job as commissioner to Mexico in October 1847. However, he ignored his recall order and stayed on the job. By February 1848, he had successfully negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. That treaty ended the Mexican American War and led to one of the largest land acquisitions in U.S. history.

George Washington began his professional career as a professional land surveyor. He worked for the Fairfax family of Belvoir Manor. The experience was the foundational for the father of America. Washington took the experiences of surveying into his military career and employed the skills throughout his life.