Near Great Falls in Fairfax County, Virginia — The American South (Mid-Atlantic)
U.S. Army Map Service
Photographed by J. J. Prats, June 24, 2017
1. U.S. Army Map Service Marker
Erected 2017 by Department of Historic Resources. (Marker Number E-143.)
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Air & Space • Communications • Military • Science & Medicine. In addition, it is included in the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1961.
Location. 38° 59.866′ N, 77° 18.866′ W. Marker is near Great Falls, Virginia, in Fairfax County. It is on Springvale Road (County
this page online
Regionally, this marker is in the Washington Metropolitan Area and in Northern Virginia. It is also in the American South, specifically in the Upper South, and in the Mid-Atlantic. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region, North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture, one of the original Thirteen Colonies, one of the Confederate States of America, and the Antebellum South.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 2 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Great Falls Nike Missile Site (a few steps from this marker); Forestville Volunteer Fire Department, est. May 5, 1942 (approx. 1.2 miles away); Battle of Dranesville (approx. 1½ miles away); Sharpsburg/Antietam Campaign (approx. 1½ miles away); Forestville School (approx. 1.6 miles away); Action At Dranesville (approx. 1.6 miles away);
Photographed by J. J. Prats, June 24, 2017
2. U.S. Army Map Service and Great Falls Nike Missile Site Markers
Other markers no longer nearby. Sharpsburg (Antietam) Campaign (was approx. 1.2 miles away but has been replaced with another marker now near it); Historical Statement (The Bell) (was approx. 1.2 miles away but has been replaced with another marker now near it).
Also see . . .
1. Wikipedia entry for Global Positioning System. “During Labor Day weekend in 1973, a meeting of about twelve military officers at the Pentagon discussed the creation of a Defense Navigation Satellite System (DNSS). It was at this meeting that the real synthesis that became GPS was created. Later that year, the DNSS program was named Navstar, or Navigation System Using Timing and Ranging. With the individual satellites being associated with the name Navstar (as with the predecessors Transit and Timation), a more fully encompassing name was used to identify the constellation of Navstar satellites, Navstar-GPS.” (Submitted on June 26, 2017.)
2. A brief history of GPS (video from CNN).
3. Mathematician Gladys West dies at 95. She was a hidden figure behind GPS. 2026 obituary by Harrison Smith in The Washington Post.
Dr. West, who died January 17[, 2026,] at 95, used her mathematical skills to become a barrier-breaking researcher for the Navy, mastering a bulky supercomputer known as Stretch while calculating satellite orbits and developing a precise model of the Earths surface. Her research laid the groundwork for the Global Positioning System, GPS, a technology that has made getting lost a thing of the past. Thanks in part to Dr. West, anyone with a smartphone or a receiver-equipped car, airplane or boat can navigate easily from one place to the next, without having to stop to ask for directions. ...(Submitted on February 2, 2026, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio.)
Without the mathematical model that she and her team helped develop, the extraordinary positioning, navigation, and timing accuracy of GPS would be impossible to achieve, the U.S. Space Force said in an online biography of Dr. West, who was named one of the militarys Space and Missile Pioneers in 2018.
Credits. This page was last revised on February 2, 2026. It was originally submitted on June 26, 2017, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. This page has been viewed 1,598 times since then and 47 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on June 26, 2017, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio.
