[2] Rockbridge County completely surrounds the independent cities of Buena Vista and Lexington.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the independent cities of Buena Vista and Lexington with Rockbridge County for statistical purposes.

Rockbridge County was formed during an act of assembly intended to reduce the distance that residents had to travel to the nearest courthouse, and to ensure trials were held fairly, and among neighbors rather than strangers.

The first court session in Rockbridge County was held at the home of Samuel Wallace on April 7, 1778.

Because there were many subsistence farmers in the area, residents held fewer enslaved African Americans in Rockbridge County than in many parts of Virginia.

But, many of the wealthiest residents of Rockbridge County were planters and large landowners; they held numerous slaves and bequeathed them as property to their widows and children, or gave them as wedding gifts.

His father held 41 enslaved African Americans and was a major property owner in real estate as well.

The terrain's highest point (4,072 feet/1,241 meters ASL) is Rocky Mountain on its SE border with Amherst County.

[6] Rockbridge County is one of the 423 counties served by the Appalachian Regional Commission,[7] and it is identified as part of "Greater Appalachia" by Colin Woodard in his book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.