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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Potomac Yard station

Washington Metro station in Virginia, US

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 19, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Potomac Yard station is a Washington Metro station in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. It is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), serving both the Blue and Yellow Lines, and opened on May 19, 2023. It is located at Alexandria's 7.5-million-square-foot (700,000 m2) Potomac Yard mixed-use development bounded by Richmond Highway and the George Washington Memorial Parkway. It is the second infill station to be added to the Washington Metro system, after NoMa–Gallaudet U in 2004. It was constructed on the site of Potomac Yard, a former railroad freight yard.

Editorial summary

“Potomac Yard station” enters the record as washington Metro station in Virginia, US. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Potomac, Yard and station can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2023, 2004—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Potomac, Yard and station.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Potomac Yard station” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Potomac, Yard and station provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The first chronological checks are 2023 and 2004.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Potomac Yard station”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Potomac Yard station primary sources, Potomac Yard station archive and Potomac research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Potomac Yard station”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Potomac Yard station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.