Fairfax County, officially the County
of Fairfax, is a predominantly
suburban county — with urban and rural pockets — in the Commonwealth
of Virginia in the United States.
As of the 2010 census, the
population was 1,081,726, in 2015, it was estimated at 1,142,234, making it the
Commonwealth's most populous jurisdiction, with 13.6% of Virginia's population. The county is also
the most populous jurisdiction in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria,
DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, with 19.8% of the MSA population, as
well as the larger Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined
Statistical Area, with 13.1% of the CSA population. The county seat is the City
of Fairfax, though because it is an independent
city under Virginia law, the city of Fairfax is not part of Fairfax County.
Fairfax was the first U.S.
county to reach a six-figure median household income and has the second-highest
median household income of any local jurisdiction in the United States after neighbor Loudoun County.
The county is home to the
headquarters of intelligence agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency, National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and National Reconnaissance Office, as well as
the National Counterterrorism Center
and Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The county is also home to
seven Fortune 500 companies, including three with Falls
Church addresses; although Falls
Church is its own independent municipality.
History of Fairfax County
At the time of European
encounter, the inhabitants of what would become Fairfax County
were an Algonquian-speaking sub-group called the Taux, also known as the
Doeg or Dogue. Their villages, as recorded by Captain John Smith in 1608,
included Namassingakent and Nemaroughquand on the south bank of
the Potomac River in what is now Fairfax
County. Virginian
colonists from the Northern Neck region drove the Doeg out of this area and
into Maryland
by 1670.
Fairfax County
was formed in 1742 from the northern part of Prince William
County. It was named for Thomas
Fairfa, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781), proprietor of the Northern
Neck. The Fairfax
family name is derived from the Old English phrase for "blond hair" –
Faeger-feahs.
The oldest settlements in Fairfax County
were along the Potomac River. George
Washington settled in Fairfax County and built his home, Mount Vernon, facing the river. Gunston Hall,
the home of George Mason is nearby. Modern Fort
Belvoir is partly on the estate of
Belvoir Manor, built along the Potomac by
William Fairfax in 1741.
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax
of Cameron, the only member of the British nobility ever to reside in the
colonies, lived at Belvoir before he moved to the Shenandoah
Valley. The Belvoir mansion and several of its outbuildings were
destroyed by fire immediately after the Revolutionary War in 1783, and George
Washington noted the plantation complex deteriorated into ruins.
In 1757, the northwestern
two-thirds of Fairfax County became Loudoun County.
In 1789, part of Fairfax County was ceded to the federal government to form Alexandria County
of the District of Columbia.
Alexandria County
was returned to Virginia in 1846, reduced in
size by the secession of the independent city of Alexandria
in 1870, and renamed Arlington
County in 1920. The Fairfax County
town of Falls Church
became an independent city in 1948. The Fairfax
County town of Fairfax became an independent city in 1961.
Located near Washington,
D.C., Fairfax County
was an important region in the Civil War. The Battle of Chantilly or Ox Hill,
during the same campaign as the second Battle of Bull Run, was fought within
the county; Bull Run is the border between Fairfax
and Prince William Counties.
Other areas of activity included Minor's Hill, Munson's Hill, and Upton's Hill, on the county's eastern border, overlooking Washington, D.C.
The federal government's growth
during and after World War II spurred rapid growth in the county and made the
county increasingly suburban. Other large businesses continued to settle in Fairfax County
and the opening of Tysons
Corner Center
spurred the rise of Tysons Corner. The technology boom and a steady
government-driven economy also created rapid growth and an increasingly growing
and diverse population. The economy has also made Fairfax County
one of the nation's wealthiest counties.
A general aviation airport
located along U.S. Route 50, west of Seven Corners called the Falls Church
Airpark operated in the county from 1948 to 1960. The facility's 2,650 foot
unpaved runway was used extensively by private pilots and civil defense
officials. Residential development, multiple accidents, and the demand for
retail space led to its closure in 1960.
Economy of Fairfax County
Fairfax County's economy revolves around professional
services and technology. Many residents work for the government or for
contractors of the federal government. The government is the largest employer,
with Fort Belvoir
in southern Fairfax
being the county's single largest location of federal employment. Fairfax County has a gross county product of
about $95 billion.
Fairfax County also is home to
major employers such as Volkswagen Group of America, Hilton Worldwide, CSC
(formerly Computer Sciences Corporation), Northrop Grumman, Science
Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Leidos, Booz Allen Hamilton, SRA
International, Gannett, Capital One, General Dynamics, ICF International, Freddie
Mac, Sallie Mae, ManTech International, Mars, NII and NVR. The county is home
to seven Fortune 500 company headquarters, 11 Hispanic 500 companies, and five
companies on the Black Enterprise 500 list. Northrop Grumman announced in 2010
that it would move its corporate headquarters from Los
Angeles to Fairfax
County.
The county's economy is supported
by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, which provides services
and information to promote Fairfax
County as a leading
business and technology center. The FCEDA is the nation's largest non-state
economic development authority. Fairfax
County is also home to
the Northern Virginia Technology Council, a trade association for local
technology companies. It is the nation's largest technology council, with
technology industry figures such as Bill Gates and Meg Whitman speaking at
various local banquets. Fairfax County has a higher concentration of high-tech
workers than the Silicon Valley.
Tyson’s Corner
The Tysons Corner CDP of Fairfax
County is Virginia's
largest office market and the nation's largest suburban business district with
26,600,000 square feet (2,470,000 m2) of office space. It is the country's
12th-largest business district, and is expected to grow substantially in the
coming decades. It contains a quarter of the county's total office space
inventory, which was 105,200,000 square feet (9,770,000 m2) at year-end 2006, which is about the
size of Lower Manhattan. The area is noted by Forbes
as "often described as the place where the Internet was invented, but
today it looks increasingly like the center of the global military-industrial
complex" due to being home to the nation's first ISPs (many of whom are
now defunct), while attracting numerous defense contractors who have relocated
from other states to or near Tysons Corner.
Every weekday, Tysons Corner
draws over 100,000 workers from around the region. It also draws 55,000
shoppers every weekday as it is home to neighboring super-regional malls Tysons Corner
Center and Tysons
Galleria. In comparison, Washington,
D.C. draws 15 million visitors
annually, or the equivalent of 62,500 per weekday.
After years of stalling and
controversy, the $5.2 billion expansion of the Washington Metro Silver Line in Virginia from Washington, D.C. to Dulles
International Airport
received funding approval from the Federal Transit Administration in December
2008. The Silver Line added four stations in Tysons Corner, including a station
between Tysons Corner Center
and Tysons Galleria.
Along with the expansion of Washington
Metro, Fairfax County government has a plan to
"urbanize" the Tysons Corner area. The plan calls for a
private-public partnership and a grid-like street system to make Tysons Corner
a more urban environment, tripling available housing to allow more workers to
live near their work. The goal is to have 95% of Tysons Corner within 1⁄2-mile (800 m) from a metro station.
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