Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C. With 2.6 million residents (about a third of the state), it is the most populous region of Virginia and the Washington Metropolitan Area.
Communities in the region form the Virginia portion of the Washington Metropolitan Area, Metropolitan Statistical Area and the larger Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. Northern Virginia is the highest-income region of Virginia, having seven of the twenty highest-income counties in the nation, including the three highest as of 2009.
Northern Virginia's transportation infrastructure includes major airports Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles International, several lines of the Washington Metro subway system, the Virginia Railway Express suburban commuter rail system, transit bus services, and an extensive network of Interstate highways and expressways.
Notable features of the region include the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, and the many companies which serve them and the federal government. The area's attractions include various monuments and Colonial and Civil War-era sites such as Mount Vernon and Arlington National Cemetery. It is the most affluent region in the nation.
Read more about Northern Virginia: Etymology, Defining "Northern Virginia", Demographics, Economy, Attractions, Culture, Transportation, Education, Recreation
Famous quotes containing the words northern and/or virginia:
“[During the Renaissance] the Italians said, “We are one in the Father: we will go back.” The Northern races said, “We are one in Christ, we will go on.””
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Being blunt with your feelings is very American. In this big country, I can be as brash as New York, as hedonistic as Los Angeles, as sensuous as San Francisco, as brainy as Boston, as proper as Philadelphia, as brawny as Chicago, as warm as Palm Springs, as friendly as my adopted home town of Dallas, Fort Worth, and as peaceful as the inland waterway that rubs up against my former home in Virginia Beach.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)