Known as Columbia Pike, the state highway runs 4.58 miles (7.37 km) from SR 236 in Annandale to the Arlington County line.

The road intersects George Mason Drive, SR 120 (Glebe Road), and Walter Reed Drive in Westmont, which is a center for Arlington's immigrant community, with many stores, restaurants, and other businesses representing south Arlington's cultural diversity.

At the United States Air Force Memorial, Columbia Pike becomes a divided highway, passes through an S-curve, and briefly follows the southern edge of the Arlington National Cemetery reservation.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture paved the road with concrete in 1928 from the bridge west to Palmer's Hill in Barcroft as part of an experimental testing program.

With the construction of the Pentagon Columbia Pike was replaced by the Shirley Highway as the Virginia approach to the Long Bridge/14th Street Bridge.

Until the 1990s, Columbia Pike accommodated rush hour traffic by reversing the direction of one lane using overhead signals.

In 2004, the Columbia Pike Street Space Planning Task Force recommended future transit operate in mixed traffic and that the transitway be located in the curb lanes.

[4] Recent efforts by the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization include the replacement of older traffic signals with newer and more aesthetic ones, and the addition of brick texture to crosswalks.

Thus, by their request, 3.3 miles (5.3 km) of SR 244 – nearly its entire length in the county – was removed from the primary state highway system at the September 2010 meeting of Commonwealth Transportation Board.

In 2016, Arlington County proposed a "premium transit network" down Columbia Pike, using frequent buses in mixed traffic (not dedicated lanes) and purpose-built stops in place of streetcars.