Located on the banks of the Potomac River with dramatic views of Washington DC and Reagan National Airport, Crystal City is an area in southeastern Arlington County, Virginia centered along a stretch of U.S. Route 1 (Jefferson Davis Highway) just south of the Pentagon, and east of Pentagon City.
Crystal City is the ideal place to work and live. Premier offices and residential buildings, world-class hotels, shopping and dining, all converge along tree-lined streets connected by landscaped parks and an extensive underground shopping and entertainment complex.
The underground essentially is Crystal City, spanning from 15th to 23rd Street, with a mall feel to it. It is possible to walk from one end of Crystal City to the other, shopping or dining along the way, entirely underground – a real convenience in inclement weather.
In addition to the Underground, shopping is a short walk away at Pentagon City Mall and Fashion Centre, anchored by the Ritz-Carlton hotel. With a collection of more than 170 stores and restaurants, including Macy’s, Nordstrom, Ann Taylor, Cole Haan, Coach, Banana Republic, J. Crew, Jos. A. Bank, Kenneth Cole, MAC Cosmetics, Sephora, Swarovski Crystal Gallery, and Williams-Sonoma. Restaurants include McCormick & Schmick’s, Morton’s of Chicago, and Ruth’s Cris steakhouse.
Adjacent to the Fashion Centre is the new Pentagon Row, with over 45 retail shops, including Bally health and Fitness, DSW Show Warehouse, Harris Teeter grocery, and an assortment of restaurants from Wolfgang Puck’s to sushi, Thai, Vietnamese, Irish, and ordinary hamburger joints.
Arguably the most convenient location in the Washington, DC metro area, Crystal City has stations on the Washington Metro Blue and Yellow Lines, and on the Virginia Railway Express commuter train system (Crystal Drive at 15th Road South). You can travel as far west as Manassas on one line, all the way to Fredericksburg on another, or north to Union Station, where you can catch trains in any direction. Reagan National Airport is 5 minutes away by car.
Crystal City presently has over 6,000 residents, and around 60,000 come to work here every weekday. All of the apartment buildings have internal hallways with horizontally opposed apartments, forcing neighbors to interact with each other more so than would be in an "open" building.
Crystal City offers and ice skating rink from November through mid March, summer concerts, and live music. There are nine parks, public volleyball courts, two sport and health clubs, and a connector trail that leads bikers and pedestrians to the paths and greenery of the GW parkway, along the Potomac river.