THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996 TAG: 9609240178
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 40 lines
Like a streetwise kid, the tarmac takes a short cut, darting cater-corner between Monticello Avenue and 11th Street.
The little lane is also just about as hard to spot as a youth slinking along beneath the shadows of chunky city buildings - head bowed, hands jammed deep into pockets and baseball cap yanked down hard over his face.
The stretch of street that has been an orphan of sorts for years has a new name.
Now, the block that folks will miss if they blink is known as Fort Tar Lane. It used to be called Armistead Bridge Road. Trouble was, a residential street in West Ghent had the same name, and folks there said the case of double identity led to confusion. People trying to track down addresses sometimes ended up on the wrong block and were perplexed to find big commercial buildings rudely turning their backs on them.
City officials agreed that the dual designations were a problem and earlier this month changed the shorter street's name. They avoided giving the mini-version of Armistead Bridge Road short shrift, though, by attaching historical significance to it.
Having long ago lost its identity when it apparently was cut off from its parent pavement, the lazy lane did the next best thing and adopted the name of a nearby historical site - Fort Tar. It's a noble denotation.
The fort that once raised its ramparts where a parking lot now sprawls at the northeast corner of Monticello Avenue and Virginia Beach Boulevard was a key player in the defense of Norfolk during the War of 1812.
According to a historical marker at the site, the fort was built to guard the northern approaches of the city from attack by the British.
Constructed near Armistead's Bridge, which spanned nearby Glebe Creek, it served, with forts Barbour, Norfolk and Nelson, to protect both Norfolk and Portsmouth from invasion by the British. ILLUSTRATION: MAP/VP
Area Shown by CNB