A loud thunderclap reverberates through the Virginia hills. A plume of smoke rises over the landscape as on a July 1861 date when the war erupted. Boom: Armchair spectators at a Civil War cannon firing near Manassas scramble for their smartphones to try to capture the moment. Today, the battlefield between the hallowed past and the future is not of men on open fields but within the hearts, minds, and imaginations of those who consider this battlefield holy ground. In between pushing images to the other side of reality on people’s smartphones and tablet PC’s, digital packets rush to massive data centers that increasingly hem in or circle around this sphere of middle places, leading to a clash between revered past and techno-future.
Virginia’s historic landscapes—where nearly half the nation’s casualties during the Civil War took place—now face perhaps their greatest assault yet from the burgeoning artificial intelligence infrastructure. Proposed as home to what could become the world’s largest data center development with 37 huge buildings just outside Manassas National Battlefield Park, plans for Prince William Digital Gateway set up a very contemporary confrontation between preservation of history and advance of technology.
Any interested citizen has to be worried. Rolling hills and woods of Manassas are very important in the national story of America. The first great battle of the Civil War took place here on July 21, 1861, when Union forces attacked Confederate defenders across Bull Run creek. In the North, its defeat signaled that the war would be extended and bloodier than most had thought. Another major battle occurred on this ground in August 1862 to make firmer Manassas’s mark in American military history. Like most places with battlefields, Manassas National Battlefield Park is here now due to strong efforts for keeping such lands that started in the early 20th century.
Nearly 5,000 acres of this battlefield are today controlled by NPS which draws in hundreds of thousands every year visiting many more lessons brought out at this turning point for America as visitors link up with real history through demonstration uniforms showing exact ways used by soldiers of that time.
Pressure for development continues to encroach upon the physical landscapes that are so dominant in the historical memory of America. Since Northern Virginia is viewed as prime real estate near Washington, D.C., home buyers and more recently technologists have primarily targeted it. The region is also host to what now must be considered one of the largest concentrations of data centers ubiquitously within easy driving distance anywhere in the world—a trend exacerbated by the recent explosion in artificial intelligence.
The Rise of Data Center Alley
Today, over 275 data centers already found operating within what those inside the industry have characterized as Data Center Alley believe accurately highlights only part of a far broader phenomenon under way throughout Northern Virginia. An estimated 70% share of total global internet traffic routed via facilities located within Loudoun County alone. Therein lies unlovely big windowless boxes ringed with security fences housing inside them all our social media content—and AI’s content too. The recent AI revolution has drastically heightened demand for such facilities. Massive computing power is needed to train advanced AI models, and companies are now racing against one another to build the infrastructure capable of supporting this level.
As Karen Cohen, spokeswoman for QTS Data Centers—another participant in the Prince William Digital Gateway project—puts it: The digitalization of the economy and AI revolution continue to drive very strong customer demand. These are high-paying jobs they bring with them an added bonus of tax revenue. More than $400 million a year in tax receipts is what Prince William County officials say is possible due to the Digital Gateway opening up here. In a region where federal government presence traditionally dominates all else, data centers mean diversification and growth potential. Proximity goes hand-in-hand with encroachment on communities, environmental resources, and historical sites. Massive buildings require extensive land clearing plus enormous quantities of water to be used in their cooling systems consumed as vast amounts of electricity—pitting them against conservation priorities and neighborhood concerns.
Environmental Impacts and Resource Concerns
The environmental footprint of data centers goes well beyond their physical structures. It can reach millions of gallons per day that a typical large-scale facility consumes for its cooling systems—particularly troubling in areas where water is scarce or there is drought. While most modern facilities include water recycling technology, the scale of development has made sustainability come into question. Another major concern is energy consumption. Data centers already consume about 1-2% of the world’s electricity, and it is AI applications that are increasing this share. This has carbon implications in Virginia because much of the electricity is still generated from fossil fuels even as more renewables are added.
The Prince William Digital Gateway project has drawn particular environmental scrutiny due to its location inside the Occoquan Watershed — the source of drinking water for more than 800,000 residents of Northern Virginia. Environmentalists fear that forest clearing and building huge impervious surfaces would create more runoff that could degrade the quality of water. When you take away trees and put concrete there, you change the way water flows through the land. That’s how Dr. Elena Sanchez puts it, she’s an environmental engineer who has seen up close the effects big developments have on watersheds. And those aren’t just academic worries — they’re real communities downstream.
Preservation Efforts and Community Concerns
Community Resistance and Historical Preservation As the heavy machines get ready to rework that land, local folks plus preservationists and green groups have all gotten together against it. Most say even if tech progress is bound to happen, it shouldn’t happen by losing one-of-a-kind historical and green resources. Originating as a response to the expansion of data centers, a grassroots organization known as the Coalition to Protect Prince William County has become the rallying point of community resistance. It maintained that rapid approval processes had brushed aside valid concerns over traffic, noise, property values, and quality of life for adjacent neighborhoods.
We’re not just going to roll over while corporations reshape our community without meaningful input,” said Elena Robertson, a coalition member who lives near the proposed development. “Once these historical landscapes are gone, they’re gone forever. There are better places in the world for data centers that do not have to come at the cost of our heritage or environment. Organizations of preservation such as the American Battlefield Trust have come out in opposition claiming that even development outside the park boundaries can damage the historical integrity of these sites.
‘Battlefield preservation isn’t just the ground where soldiers fought. It’s about keeping the context that helps visitors understand what happened there,’ said James Campi, Trust’s chief policy officer. ‘If you line the battlefield with industrial development, you diminish its power to educate future generations.’ Data center developers have not ignored these concerns as many new companies now work environmental considerations into their designs, such as water recycling systems and green roofs and commitments to renewable energy. Some of the newer facilities are designed with architectural elements that would better blend with their surroundings than the standard windowless box design.
At the Prince William Digital Gateway, developers promised buffers between their buildings and the battlefield park. QTS and fellow developer Compass Datacenters are going to put up information kiosks and historical trails that would better help visitors understand the importance of this area. We do deem it a duty to act as stewards of these lands,’ said Michael Hollander, regional vice president for Compass. ‘Our plans include substantial setbacks from historical areas, environmentally sensitive design plus community amenities that will benefit residents.’ Technological progress and history preservation can coexist. Representatives from the industry stress how their facilities pivot to the economy at large. Data centers offer permanent jobs beyond construction work, security and maintenance work among other activities. They generate enormous tax revenue that can fund schools, infrastructure, and public services without any corresponding increase in population that residential development brings.
Finding Balance in the Digital Age
This fighting that is coming up in Virginia is a reflection of broader tensions coming up all over the world while digital infrastructure keeps expanding. From Singapore to Sweden these are parallel questions communities must wrestle with regarding how best to accommodate technological growth even as they prioritize their natural and cultural resources. Some places struck unusual bargains. Amsterdam imposed strict regulations on data centers regarding the usage of water and mandated heat recycling systems that would channel waste heat to warm homes in their neighborhood.
Iceland positioned itself as a hub for data centers by encouraging the use of abundant renewable geothermal energy and taking advantage of its natural cooling climate thus minimizing environmental impacts. This isn’t a yes-no question about whether or not we build data centers, says Dr. Jonathan Chen, who analyzes societal impacts from digital infrastructure at Georgetown University. The question is where we build them and how we design them, what values we prioritize in the process. Those are fundamentally political and ethical questions that communities need to resolve together.