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
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“That we can come here today and in the presence of thousands and tens of thousands of the survivors of the gallant army of Northern Virginia and their descendants, establish such an enduring monument by their hospitable welcome and acclaim, is conclusive proof of the uniting of the sections, and a universal confession that all that was done was well done, that the battle had to be fought, that the sections had to be tried, but that in the end, the result has inured to the common benefit of all.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)