The City of Arlington, with its present hustle and sprawling neighborhoods, is a far cry from its humble beginnings with a population that scarcely topped 4,470 back in 1940, a figure paled by the near-400,000 residents it boasts today. Citing Arlington author and historian O.K. Carter, the 1940 census revealed the town's modest numbers just before the growth spurt ushered in by the end of World War II, according to the City of Arlington.
Once the war concluded, Arlington's population expectations saw residents and officials alike engaging in optimistic forecasts, wagering on a post-war expansion that would elevate its numbers well into the five figures; the Arlington Citizen-Journal organized a contest to nail down the anticipated count, with guesses coming in between 10,000 and 12,000, yet the final number sat at 7,961. The closest guess came from Pamela Jean Ross who was just 65 shy of the figure. What ensued was a growth that the then Mayor B.C. Barnes had characterized it as "solid and substantial," predicting, perhaps a touch too conservatively, that the city's numbers might reach 14,000 over the next decade however what unfolded was far beyond what most had imagined.
This transformative era of Arlington's growth trajectory was marked by a substantial underestimation by Barnes, as noted by O.K. Carter, whose works often detail the city's historical milestones. By the time the 1960 census rolled around, and under the leadership of Mayor Tom Vandergriff, Arlington's population had multiplied nearly six times to an unexpected 44,775, propelling the city into the echelons of America's rapidly growing municipalities, overshooting Barnes' forecast by quite a margin.
