[5][6] The Bureau of Economic Analysis of the United States Department of Commerce combines the city of Fredericksburg with neighboring Spotsylvania County for statistical purposes.

Located near where the Rappahannock River crosses the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, Fredericksburg was a prominent port in Virginia during the colonial era.

Approximately 1.5 million people visit the Fredericksburg area annually, including the battlefield park, the downtown visitor center, events, museums, art shops, galleries, and many historical sites.

Many Fredericksburg area residents commute to work by car, bus, and rail to Washington, D.C., and Richmond, as well as Fairfax, Prince William, and Arlington counties.

Located on the Rappahannock River near the head of navigation at the fall line, Fredericksburg developed as the frontier of colonial Virginia shifted west from the coastal plain into the Piedmont.

In 1714, Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood sponsored a German settlement called Germanna on the Rapidan River, a tributary of the Rappahannock upstream from the future site of the city.

As interest in the frontier grew, the colonial assembly formed Spotsylvania County in 1720, named after Royal Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood.

The city has close associations with George Washington, whose family in 1738 moved to Ferry Farm in Stafford County near the Rappahannock River opposite Fredericksburg.

[14] In the 1770s, Fielding Lewis, owner of Kenmore Plantation and brother-in-law to George Washington, also operated an arms factory for the Continental Army.

It promoted the development of a canal on the Rappahannock and construction of a turnpike and plank road to bind the interior country to the market town.

During the Civil War, Fredericksburg was strategically important because of its port location midway between Washington and Richmond, the opposing capitals of the Union and the Confederacy.

During the Battle of Fredericksburg from December 11–15, 1862, the town sustained significant damage from bombardment and looting by the Union forces.

Many African-Americans left rural areas of the South for work and other opportunities in industrial cities of the North and Midwest in the Great Migration.

A commuter rail line – the Virginia Railway Express – was established in the 1980s, providing passage to Washington, D.C. and other cities north of Fredericksburg.

Retail, real estate, and other commercial growth exploded in the early 21st century, eventually slowing during the Great Recession beginning in 2007.

[19] The city is part of the boundary between the Piedmont and Tidewater regions, and as such is located on the fall line, as evident on the Rappahannock River.

[33] By long-standing tradition (dating back to the Federal Hatch Act of 1939, which prohibited government employees from participating in partisan politics), local elections in Fredericksburg are officially non-partisan.

Neither the mayoral and council elections nor local constitutional positions (e.g. sheriff, Commissioner of Revenue, Commonwealth Attorney) list candidates with a party label.

[35] Only Arlington County, Alexandria, and Falls Church in Northern Virginia had a higher percentage of votes for Obama.

The 40-block Fredericksburg Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, embraces the city's downtown area and contains more than 350 buildings and locations dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, including the Fredericksburg Town Hall and Market Square, Lewis Store, and former site of the Slave Auction Block.

Important public buildings include the 1852 courthouse designed by James Renwick, whose works include the Smithsonian Institution's castle building in Washington and St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, and the 1816 town hall and market house, now operated as the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center.

Formed by an act of Congress in 1927, the national military park preserves portions of the battlefields of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House.

[40] In 2010, the National Park Service, which manages the battlefield, Stafford County, and the City of Fredericksburg worked collaboratively to post new historical markers on either side of the Rappahannock River as part of a "Freedom Trail" to mark this exodus.

Nearby points of interest include Ferry Farm historic site across the Rapahannock in Stafford County where Washington spent his boyhood, and the George Washington Birthplace National Monument, located 38 miles (61 km) to the east in Westmoreland County on the Northern Neck.

The Free Lance was first published in 1885, and competed with two twice-weekly papers in the city during the late 19th century, the Fredericksburg News and The Virginia Star.

[citation needed] In 2001, the Arbitron media service began listing the Fredericksburg area as a nationally rated radio market.

[citation needed] Studio Ironcat, A small publishing company based in Fredericksburg, Virginia, dedicated to publication of manga and later, Amerimanga.

[49][50] The Fredericksburg Nationals minor league baseball team began play at Virginia Credit Union Stadium in 2021.

[citation needed] Fredericksburg is traversed by a series of rural and suburban four-lane highways and a multitude of small, two-lane roads.

[citation needed] Most of Fredericksburg's traffic flow is to or from the north (Washington, D.C. metropolitan area) during peak commuting hours, primarily via I-95 and U.S. Route 1.