[6] Northern Virginia's transportation infrastructure includes two major airports, Ronald Reagan Washington National and Dulles International Airport, several lines of the Washington Metro subway system, the Virginia Railway Express suburban commuter rail system, transit bus services, bicycle sharing and bicycle lanes and trails, and an extensive network of Interstate highways and expressways.

[8] According to Johnston, some early documents and land grants refer to the "Northern Neck of Virginia", a reference to the Northern Neck and describing an area that began at the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay and includes a territory that extended west, including all the land between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, with a western boundary called the Fairfax line.

[8] The Northern Neck was composed of 5,282,000 acres (21,380 km2), and was larger in area than five of the modern U.S. states:[8]This monument, at the headspring of the Potomac River, marks one of the historic spots of America.

This is the base point for the western dividing line between Maryland and West Virginia.Early development of the northern portion of Virginia was in the easternmost area of that early land grant, which encompasses the modern counties of Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, and Westmoreland.

[16] He later built a hunting lodge named "Greenway Court",[11] which was located near White Post in Clarke County near the Blue Ridge Mountains, and moved there.

Just a few weeks after the surrender of British Army troops under General Cornwallis at Yorktown, Fairfax died at his home at Greenway Court on December 9, 1781, at the age of 90.

[16] While his plans for a large house at Greenway Court never materialized, and his stone lodge is now gone, a small limestone structure he built remains on the site in his honor.

[11] Following the American Revolutionary War, the Thirteen Colonies formed the United States of America, and Continental Army commander and Virginian George Washington became the new nation's first president.

He was also a proponent of the bustling port city of Alexandria, located on the Potomac River below the fall line, not far from his plantation at Mount Vernon in Fairfax County.

In 1846, to mitigate these issues and as part of abolishing slave trading in the District, the U.S. Congress passed a bill retroceding to Virginia the area south of the Potomac River, which was then Alexandria County.

Writing the majority opinion, Justice Noah Swayne stated only that: The plaintiff in error is estopped from raising the point which he seeks to have decided.

[20]With barely 100 mi (160 km) separating the two capital cities, Northern Virginia found itself in the center of much of the conflict, which inflicted destruction and bloodshed.

[citation needed] Arlington, Clarke, Fairfax, Frederick, Loudoun, Shenandoah, and Warren Counties voted in favor of Virginia remaining in the Union in 1861, but eventually broke away from the state.

The Department of Defense's increasing reliance on information technology companies during the Cold War was influential in launching the modern Northern Virginia economy and spurred urban development throughout the region.

The subsequent Afghanistan and Iraq wars also contributed to the region's growth, as the federal government increased its contracting with private defense firms.

Any incorporated county, city, or town in Northern Virginia with a population exceeding 3,500 that adopts NVRC's charter agreement is eligible to become a member of the commission.

Founded in 1957, MWCOG is a regional organization of 22 Washington-area local governments, as well as area members of the Maryland and Virginia state legislatures, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives.

These counties, largely considered exurban or undergoing suburban change, include Clarke, Culpeper, Frederick, Madison, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Warren, and the independent city of Winchester.

Major companies formerly headquartered in the region include AOL, Mobil, Nextel/Sprint, PSINet, Sallie Mae, MCI Communications, Transurban, and UUNET.

Although a member of the Democratic Party and an initial supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Senator Byrd became a bitter opponent of the New Deal and related national policies, particularly those involving fiscal and social issues.

People of the emerging middle class were increasingly less willing to accept the rural focus of the General Assembly, nor Byrd's extreme positions on public debt and social issues.

However, this seemed to reach a peak during the administration of Jim Gilmore, with a move to repeal an unpopular car tax accompanied by a failure to provide promised replacement funds to the counties, cities and towns.

[84] In 2006 despite not polling as strongly as Mark Warner statewide, Democratic senate candidate Jim Webb won both Loudoun and Prince William counties.

[90] Arlington, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Prince William, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Warren counties, as well as Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Manassas, Manassas Park, and Winchester cities, form Northern Virginia's contribution to the Washington metropolitan area; Hillary Clinton received 849,758 votes compared to Donald Trump's 503,120 votes in the twelve-county and seven-city region, a 63–37 percent split in the 2016 presidential election.

It is home to the Northern Virginia Swim League, which comprises 102 community pools, and NVSL-Dive, which is composed of 47 teams in Fairfax and Arlington counties.

Former Republican delegate Jeannemarie Devolites Davis expressed a common sentiment when she said "The formula for funding school construction in Northern Virginia requires that we pay 500 percent more than the actual cost of a project.

The state government's funding level for transportation projects in Northern Virginia is a perennial issue that often causes consternation from the region's politicians and citizens.

This perception is especially fueled by the region's closeness to Washington, D.C., large numbers of Northern transplants, and the prevalence of both new immigrant communities and growing ethnic diversity.

Dulles is the region's primary international gateway, serves as a hub for United Airlines, and has recently improved its low-cost carrier offerings with the addition of multiple flights by Southwest and JetBlue.

A study done by INRIX Roadway Analytics ranked Southbound I-95 from Washington D.C to the southern tip of Stafford County the worst single traffic hotspot in the nation.