Chap. 267.—An ACT to establish a boundary line between the District of Columbia
and the Commonwealth of Virginia, and to provide for the cession by the Com-
monwealth of Virginia to the United States of America of certain jurisdiction
over lands acquired by the United States or any of its governmental agencies
located in the counties adjoining the said boundary line of the District of
Columbia. [H B 329]

Approved March 19, 1942

Whereas there has been introduced in the Congress of the United
States, with the approval of the National Capital Park and Planning
Commission, a bill to establish the boundary line between the District of
Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia, which bill is as follows:

I. “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the boundary
line between the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia
is hereby established as follows:

“Said boundary line shall begin at a point where the northwest
boundary of the District of Columbia intercepts the high water mark on
the Virginia shore of the Potomac River and following the present mean
high water mark thence in a southeasterly direction along the Virginia
shore of the Potomac River to Little River, along the Virginia shore of.
Little River to Boundary Channel, along the Virginia side of Boundary
Channel to the main body of the Potomac River, along the Virginia side
of the Potomac River across the mouths of all tributaries affected by the
tides of the River to Second Street, Alexandria, Virginia, from Second
Street to the present established pierhead line, and following said pier-
head line to its connection with the District of Columbia-Maryland
boundary line; that whenever said mean high water mark on the Virginia
shore is altered by artificial fills and excavations made by the United
States, or by the alluvion or erosion, then the boundary shall follow the
new mean high water mark on the Virginia shore as altered, or whenever
the location of the pierhead line along the Alexandria waterfront is

altered, then the boundary shall follow the new location of the pierhead
line.
“Sec. 2. All that part of the territory situated on the Virginia
side of the Potomac River lying between the boundary line as described
in Section one and the mean high water mark as it existed January
twenty-fourth, seventeen hundred and ninety-one, is hereby ceded to
and declared to be henceforth within the territorial boundaries, jurisdic-
tion, and sovereignty of the State of Virginia: Provided, however, that
concurrent jurisdiction over the said area is hereby reserved to the
United States.

“Sec. 3. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as relinquishing any
right, title or interest of the United States to the lands lying between the
mean high water mark as it existed January twenty-fourth, seventeen
hundred and ninety-one, and the boundary line as described in Section
one or to limit the right of the United States to establish its title to any
of said lands as provided by Act of Congress of April twenty-seventh,
nineteen hundred and twelve (27 Stat. 93); or the jurisdiction of the
courts of the United States for the District of Columbia to hear and
determine suits to establish the title of the United States in all lands in
the bed, marshes and lowlands of the Potomac River, and other lands
as described by said Act below the mean high water mark of January
twenty-fourth, seventeen hundred and ninety-one; or to limit the author-
ity to make equitable adjustments of conflicting claims as provided for in
the Act approved June fourth, nineteen hundred and thirty-four (48
Stat. 836).

“Sec. 4. The ‘present’ mean high water mark shall be construed as
the mean high water mark existing on the effective date of this Act.

“Sec. 5. The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey is hereby
authorized, empowered, and instructed to survey and properly mark by
suitable monuments the said boundary line as described in Section one,
and from time to time to monument such sections of said boundary line as
may be changed as provided for in Section one; and the necessary ap-
propriations for this work are hereby authorized.

“sec. 6. The provisions of Sections two hundred and seventy-two
to two hundred and eighty-nine, inclusive, of the Criminal Code (U. S.
Code, Title 18, Sections 451-468) shall be applicable to such portions of
the George Washington Memorial Parkway and of the Washington
National Airport as are situated within the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Any United States Commissioner specially designated for that purpose
by the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of
Virginia, shall have jurisdiction to try, and, if found guilty, to sentence
persons charged with petty offenses against the laws of the United States
committed on the above described portions of the said parkway or air-
port. The probation laws shall be applicable to persons so tried. For the
purposes of this section, the term ‘petty offense’ shall be defined as in
Section three hundred and thirty-five of the Criminal Code (U. S. Code,
Title 18, Section 541). If any person charged with any petty offense as
aforesaid shall so elect, however, he shall be tried in the said district court.

“Sec. 7. This Act shall not become effective unless and until the
State of Virginia shall accept the provisions thereof.”
Whereas the said proposed boundary line is acceptable and satis-
factory to the Commonwealth of Virginia ; and

Whereas, 1f said proposed boundary line is adopted by the Congress,
it is desirable that the Commonwealth cede to the United States certain
jurisdiction over lands acquired or to be acquired by it in Arlington
County as a part of and used as a part of the Washington National Air-
port; now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the
boundary line between the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth
of Virginia is hereby established as set out in said bill hereinabove quoted.

2. The Commonwealth of Virginia hereby accepts the provisions
of said bill, to be effective if, as, and when the same is enacted into law
by the Congress and approved by the President.

3. In addition to the jurisdiction and powers reserved in the
United States, its officers and courts in said above quoted bill, and in
addition to the jurisdiction and powers over certain lands ceded to the
United States by Sections nineteen, nineteen-a and nineteen-b of the
Code, there is hereby ceded to the United States over the said Washing-
ton National Airport lands concurrent jurisdiction over crimes and of-
fenses committed on said lands, and there is hereby ceded to the United
States such additional jurisdiction and powers over said lands as is here-
inafter provided.

4. Whenever the head or other authorized officer of any department
or independent establishment or agency of the Government of the United
States shall deem it desirable that said additional jurisdiction or powers
be ceded over said airport lands in Virginia, and whenever the Governor
and Attorney General of Virginia shall agree to same, the Governor and
Attorney General shall execute and acknowledge a deed in the name of
and under the lesser seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia ceding such
additional jurisdiction. The said deed shall accurately and specifically
describe the area and location of the land over which said additional
jurisdiction and powers are ceded and shall set out specifically what
additional jurisdiction and powers are ceded, and may set out any reser-
vations in the Commonwealth of jurisdiction which may be deemed
proper in addition to those referred to in subsection (eight) hereof.

5. In the event that the United States does not desire to accept all
or any part of the jurisdiction and powers ceded by Sections nineteen,
nineteen-a or nineteen-b of the Code said deed shall set out specifically
the said jurisdiction and powers which it is desired not to accept.

6. No such deed shall become effective or operative until the juris-
diction therein provided for is accepted on behalf of the United States as
required by Section three hundred and fifty-five of the Revised Statutes
of the United States. The said head or other authorized officer of the
Government of the United States shall indicate such acceptance by exe-
cuting and acknowledging said deed, and admitting same to record in the
office of the clerk of the court in which deeds conveying the lands affected
would properly be recorded.

When said deed has been executed and acknowledged on behalf
of the Commonwealth and the United States and admitted to record as
CHS. 267, 268] ACTS OF ASSEMBLY 391

hereinbefore set forth the same shall have the effect of ceding to and vest-
ing in the United States the jurisdiction and powers therein provided for
and none others, and of reserving in the Commonwealth all powers not
ceded. ,

8. Every such deed as is provided for in this Act shall reserve in the
Commonwealth of Virginia over all lands therein referred to the juris-
diction and power to serve civil and criminal process on said lands, and the
jurisdiction and power to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages thereon
and to levy a tax on gasoline and other motor vehicle fuels and lubricants
sold on any such lands for use in motor vehicles not greater than the tax
imposed throughout the State generally ; provided, however, that should
the United States levy a tax on such fuels and lubricants the amount of the
tax levied by this State shall be at such a rate that the combined State and
Federal taxes shall equal such combined taxes prevailing throughout the
State of Virginia generally. The State, however, shall not have power to
levy a tax on such fuels and lubricants sold to the United States or any
of its agencies for use in essential governmental purposes. It is further
provided that the reservations provided for in this section shall remain
effective even though they should be omitted from any deed executed
pursuant to this Act.

Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed as repealing any
special Acts heretofore or at this session passed ceding jurisdiction to the
Federal Government to acquire any specific tract of land.

9. An emergency existing, this Act shall be in force from its pass-
age.