Just Like Nothing (else) on Earth: Legacy Park

By Tim Jon

In an odd sort of way (or maybe not) it reminded me of Central Park in New York City; having traipsed around that popular acreage many times in days gone by, I guess I’d internalized the character of the landscape for some future use. Well, in mulling over my literary possibilities for a local gathering place called Legacy Park – in Brambleton, a short distance from the Dulles Greenway, I kept getting images of the recent visit interspersed with those of its giant sibling further up the East Coast.

I’d arrived at the general area of Rt. 659 – Belmont Ridge Road – and Legacy Park Drive- expecting … well, I’m not sure what; I simply followed my map directions after discovering a relatively new patch of green in the eastern part of the County, a rare commodity in comparison to the more open country to the west. 

So … I drove around the spot a time or two, not noticing any clear parking area or entrance to the park itself; I finally settled on just pulling over on an adjacent residential street and making my own foot trail to one of the paved hiking paths within the green space.

Now, I generally obey my first instincts at a new location, in heading toward any body of water, moving or still, and followed the same rule here; I was rewarded with a sunrise-enhanced perspective of a good-sized pond – with some impressive new homes on the opposite shore. 

The water had the quality of having been treated to reduce eutrophication (hey, I remember being fascinated by that word from high-school science, give me a break here!) – late-summer algae growth – giving the remaining liquid an odd, phosphorescent, almost day-glow look (leaving a very strange impression, at least to my early-morning vision), which seemed to extend as far as I could see beneath the water’s surface.

And this artificial manipulation of nature extended into the harder landscape, as well. With the surrounding neighborhoods poised quite close around the Park’s perimeter, I imagined the entire acreage having been sort of molded into its current format by the same giant earth-movers which had flattened the area for all those residential and commercial structures.

Letting these images and sensations sink into the objective and subjective realms of the mind and spirit, I began making those aforementioned associations between the ground beneath my feet and those now-long-ago visits to that vast open space in the heart of Manhattan – Central Park. 

And, despite their obvious size difference, the similarities included the obvious, a designated green space in the midst of a most ambitious human development, coupled with the variety of sporting opportunities within both sites (various ball courts, dotting the wooded and grassy landscape of Legacy Park, had also notched their way into my memory banks that morning), and the well-worn foot-paths left by those visitors who’d stepped from any of the paved surfaces to approach the pond or other sites of interest. 

I was quite alone in my arrival in semi-darkness, and brief hike timed for the break of dawn, but I can imagine the popularity of this spot during more ‘normal’ visiting hours – enjoying the placement within this upwardly-mobile, young (can I say ‘crowded?’) neighborhood.

But: no – Legacy Park will not become the ‘Central Park’ of Loudoun County. Our locality is much too vast in terms of physical geography – imagine driving from Loudoun Heights or Lost Corner – or Upperville or Bluemont – just to get out and stretch the legs and enjoy a simple communion with nature. 

Thankfully, we can enjoy those experiences in just about any of our own local neighborhoods, or at least in the next over. We don’t need to ask this little sister to fulfill all the niches of its giant partner (in my imagination) up in New York.

And, no – I didn’t get to revisit all my long-gone experiences from Central Park while in Brambleton, nor did I need to. I’d already had them, enjoyed them, and could now remember them with pleasure.

But I was very thankful for the spontaneous associations I’d made – in the heart, mind and soul – between these two faraway facilities – vastly distant at least now, for me – in both time and space. It was a good place to be. Just Like Nothing (else) on Earth: