[10] The county also hosts many federal governmental facilities, such as Joint Base Andrews and the United States Census Bureau headquarters.

[12] The site, which among other finds has yielded fossilized teeth from Astrodon and Priconodon species, has been called the most prolific in the eastern United States.

[16][17] During the Civil War, hundreds of enslaved black men in Prince George's County were given freedom in exchange for joining the Union Army and fighting in Colored units against Confederate Forces.

However John Pendleton Kennedy, a Maryland politician who became an abolitionist after watching a speech by Frederick Douglass, led a referendum campaign to end slavery in the state.

After the Civil War, many African Americans attempted to become part of Maryland politics, but were met with violent repression after the fall of Reconstruction.

[18][verification needed] In April 1865, John Wilkes Booth made his escape through Prince George's County while en route to Virginia after killing President Abraham Lincoln.

[29] Prince George's County lies in the Atlantic coastal plain, and its landscape is characterized by gently rolling hills and valleys.

Along its western border with Montgomery County, Adelphi, Calverton and West Laurel rise into the piedmont, exceeding 300 feet (91 m) in elevation.

Central County, located on the eastern outskirts of the Capital Beltway, consists of Mitchellville, Woodmore, Greater Upper Marlboro, Springdale, Largo, and Bowie.

[32] Mitchellville is named for a wealthy African American family, the Mitchells, who owned a large portion of land in this area of the county.

Joint Base Andrews, Bowie State University and Prince George's Community College are in the Central region, as well as County government offices.

The area has easy access to Metro's Blue Line, commercial centers, Maryland Route 214, and Interstate 95/Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway).

Protected bike trails connect residents to the Bladensburg waterfront, Kenilworth parks, and downtown D.C. Fairmont Heights is the second oldest African-American-majority municipality in Prince George's County.

[35] William Levitt in the 1960s built traditional homes, as well as California contemporaries along U.S. Route 50, the key highway to the eastern shore and the state capital of Annapolis.

Prince George's rural tier was designated "in the 2002 General Plan as an area where residential growth would be minimal";[37] it may be found in the area just beyond the Beltway to the west and south of central county, though with direct access by Route 210, while bounded on the west by the communities Accokeek and Fort Washington, and the east by the Patuxent River.

Together, these projects were built on land formerly occupied by the Salubria plantation, where a 14-year-old slave girl poisoned her owner, John H. Bayne, and his family in 1831.

Piscataway Park in Accokeek preserves many acres of woodland and wetlands along the Potomac River opposite Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Oxon Hill Manor offers a working farm and plantation mansion for touring; His Lordship's Kindness is another major historic home.

Prior to 1792, the county seat was located at Mount Calvert, a 76-acre (308,000 m2) estate along the Patuxent River on the edge of what is now in the unincorporated community of Croom.

In March 1966, the Prince George's County Government employed the firefighters who had been hired by individual volunteer stations and an organized career department was begun.

Firefighters were certified as Cardiac Rescue Technicians and deployed in what was called at the time Mobile Intensive Care Units to fire stations in Brentwood, Silver Hill, and Laurel.

As of 2007, the Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department operates a combination system staffed by over 800 career firefighters and paramedics, and nearly 1,100 active volunteers.

[59] It has routinely required them to act when they see such a dog behaving peacefully inside of a private home merely because Animal Control is checking something unrelated.

The Purple Line, which would link highly developed areas of both Montgomery and Prince George's Counties is currently under-construction and slated to open in 2027.

The first stage of The Boring Company's proposed Washington-to-New York hyperloop will travel beneath the Baltimore–Washington Parkway through Prince George's en route to Baltimore.

Similarly, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has supported efforts to trial a 40-mile superconducting maglev (SCMaglev) train route connecting Washington to Baltimore.

[67] The Hispanic population continues to grow in the county with several cities and CDPs reaching a Latino majority (Adelphi, Brentwood, Chillum, Colmar Manor, East Riverdale, Langley Park, Landover Hills, Woodlawn).

"[81] Prince George's County is relatively religious compared to the rest of Maryland,[82] hosting more than 800 churches, including 12 megachurches,[83] as well as a number of mosques, synagogues, and Hindu and Buddhist temples.

[93][94] In 2020, among predominantly African-American communities with a population of over 25,000, Prince George's County as well as Augusta, Georgia were considered safer than the national average.

[98] Prince George's County is home to the United States Department of Agriculture's Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the United States Census Bureau, Andrews Air Force Base, the National Archives and Records Administration's College Park facility, the University of Maryland's flagship College Park campus, Six Flags America and Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, Northwest Stadium (home of the Washington Commanders), and the National Harbor, which its developers, Peterson Companies and Gaylord Entertainment Company, bill as the largest single mixed-use project and combined convention center–hotel complex on the East Coast.