the airport today sits south of washington, d.c., parallel to u.s. route 1. the eastern side of the airport had to be enlarged to make room for the runways, so developers filled in a small section of the potomac river to make room for them. the western part of the airport was once part of a large virginia plantation, known as . for many years the plantation house was near where the airport parking lot stands today, but in 1930, the house burned down. in 1998, efforts to preserve the site of where the house once stood were made by the metropolitan washington airports authority, and a small exhibit of the house exists today in terminal 1 of the airport.