needed. The NVRPA was not able to acquire from the power company the portion of the right-of-way that lay within the City of Alexandria. The NVRPA also could not acquire the portion of right-of-way that the highway department had retained for construction of I-66 near East Falls Church in Arlington and various portions of the right-of-way that contained existing or potential highway crossings. The NVRPA extended the trail east and west of Falls Church as it acquired portions of the right-of-way until it stretched from Alexandria to Purcellville. In 1979, the trail was extended westward from Falls Church to Goose Creek with the aid of a federal Rails-to-Trails grant, although it was only paved as far as Maple Avenue East (VA Route 123) in Vienna - a distance of . Beyond that it was only suitable for hiking. In 1981, the NVRPA paved the trail from Vienna to Herndon. During the same year, the NVRPA also converted a section long from Herndon to Leesburg from a hiking trail to a gravel path. In 1982, the NVRPA completed a trail underpass at U.S. 15 (Leesburg Bypass) east of Leesburg, increasing the trail's total distance to over . The trail's route west of Leesburg remained accessible only by foot. Also in 1982, the trail was extended and paved eastward from Falls Church to Patrick Henry Drive in Arlington as part of the construction of I-66. During that same time period, the NVRPA began paving the easternmost section of trail from Shirlington Road to Columbia Pike (VA 244) in Arlington, with that work completed by the end of 1983. In September 1984, the NVRPA finished paving two sections of the trail, an extension westward from Herndon to Sterling and, two weeks later, an extension east from I-66 to Columbia Pike. Prior to the 1984 completion, the Arlington section of the trail from Columbia Pike to Lee Highway had been a dirt and gravel path. A sewer construction project that traveled along Four Mile Run delayed the paving for years. In 1985, the NVRPA extended the paved portion of the trail through Leesburg, together with a parallel bridle path that NVRPA extended to Purcellville. The paved trail reached its western terminus in Purcellville in 1988. In 2002, the NVRPA constructed the final section of the trail in and near Arlington County's Bluemont Park. Construction was delayed for years after encountering opposition from the public