Woodbridge Airport to be remembered at new Taco Bell

LAKE RIDGE — A new Taco Bell will open just off Old Bridge Road in Lake Ridge.

The fast-food restaurant on Cape Cod Court will hire 30 people to run the store and will feature the same menu items as other nearby Taco Bell franchises.

Prince William County Occoquan District Supervisor Ruth Anderson tells us a historical marker will be erected near the Taco Bell noting the significance of the old Woodbridge Airport which was located where Old Bridge Festival shopping center sits today.

Anderson sent us the text to be included on the marker:

On this site in 1961 the Whitecoff family opened the Woodbridge Airport as a general aviation field.  Like many small, family-operated airports throughout the country at the time, it was constructed as a “dirt strip.” As air traffic increased, improvements were made to include buildings. A paved runway was in operation by 1966 with a parallel taxiway eventually added.  The runway was 2200 feet long with a distinctive dip at its south end. Training of new pilots was a major function of the airport with dedicated on-site instructors and aircraft.  Charles Benn, who had previously developed the Washington-Virginia Airport near Bailey’s Crossroads, purchased the airfield in 1970.  He owned it until 1986. The airport closed in 1987 due to encroaching suburban development, a fate shared by similar facilities during the period. Many of the pilots relocated to airports in Manassas and Leesburg.