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At the carefully reenacted Bull Run Legion, attired in authentic blue Union uniforms, a demonstration is prepared for the Virginia landscape, where a Civil War cannon belches across an open field. Hundreds of tourists on the site raise their smartphones to capture time.
This was after that barbaric war began just within the same Virginia field in July 1861. It’s some of the heaviest irony—while the smoke of a cannon drifts to the sky, data from these phones is rocketing to some new server farms to be built. There is nothing in life termed as fate, but history components in Prince William county which have now turned out to be matter of new dispute.
We keep working from sites that were battlefields where thousands of Americans faced a grim fate, and died. Data Center Developments:703 all way fastest as a flash to build one—or the proposed Prince William Digital Gateway. The project will expand ‘Data Center Alley’ in Northern Virginia, which at the moment is the most significant center for such facilities across the world. It’s because there’s extraordinary demand in artificial intelligence that demands digital infrastructure. For local residents, historians, and environmental advocates, this digital land rush threatens to forever alter the character of historically significant landscapes, strain natural resources, and disrupt communities. ‘We’re not just trying to keep battlefield lands,’ explains Blake McDonald, Preservation Virginia’s director of preservation. ‘These areas teach us shared history, open areas, and take care of vital ecologies.’ Tech giants and data center operators forge on development plans while a coalition of preservation groups, environmental advocates, and concerned citizens are mounting their campaign to protect what they see is irreplaceable national heritage. The battle lines in this modern conflict are the basic tensions between progress and preservation or development and history, and the protection of some kind of future—a microcosm of what is that need playing out across the U.S. landscape and the world beyond.
Northern Virginia’s Data Center Boom
Northern Virginia is the world’s data center market leader for many good reasons. Close to major internet exchange points, dense fiber networks, less expensive electricity, and favorable business conditions made it a perfect environment for digital infrastructure growth.
Loudoun County alone hosts more than 25 million square feet of data centers and handles about 70% of global internet traffic.
The economic impact is huge. According to the county’s Department of Economic Development, in FY2022 data centers contributed $174 million in tax revenue for Loudoun County. Property taxes from these facilities also support the schools, infrastructure, and public services provided to the community while helping create high-paying jobs. But this explosive growth, fueled by the rapid advances in AI, has meant data center construction has passed beyond the usual industrial zones and into more sensitive areas. The proposed Prince William Digital Gateway would transform about 2,100 acres of rural and agricultural land into a mass data center campus with up to 37 buildings, some as tall as 85 feet. ‘The scale of what’s being proposed is unprecedented,’ said Elena Schlossberg, Executive Director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County. ‘We’re talking about industrializing a rural crescent that was specifically designated for environmental protection and preservation.’ QTS Data Centers and Compass Datacenters, the two companies undertaking most of the project, maintain that they are creating economically vital infrastructure while providing robust environmental protections and historical preservation measures. County officials backing the development point to potential tax revenues of more than $400 million annually.
Battlefields Under Siege
What makes the Prince William Digital Gateway particularly contentious is its proximity to Manassas National Battlefield Park, site of the First and Second Battles of Bull Run (or Manassas). The first battle in July 1861 shocked Americans with its casualties and demonstrated the war would not be quickly resolved. The second battle in August 1862 represented another significant Confederate victory.
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