Richmond, Virginia

Where Richmond is

Richmond is an independent city, part of no county, at 37.54°N, 77.44°W, on the north bank of the James River at the fall line, where rapids mark the limit of tidal navigation from Chesapeake Bay. The river is tidal downstream and ships reach the city's deepwater terminal. Henrico County surrounds the city on three sides and Chesterfield County lies across the river. Elevation ranges from near sea level along the river to about 200 ft on the hills. Interstates 64 and 95 cross in the city. Richmond is on Eastern Time.

How it became the capital

Jamestown, founded in 1607, was the first capital of Virginia. The government moved to Williamsburg in 1699 and to Richmond in 1780, on Thomas Jefferson's urging, because it was more central and farther from British naval raids. Patrick Henry had given his "liberty or death" speech at St. John's Church in Richmond in 1775. The Confederate States moved their capital here from Montgomery in May 1861, and the city was the target of the Union army for four years until it fell in April 1865.

Population

Richmond had 226,610 residents in 2020, the fourth-largest independent city in Virginia. Virginia Beach, the largest, had 459,470, and Chesapeake and Norfolk are also bigger. Because Virginia's cities are separate from counties, city populations understate the size of urban areas: the Richmond metropolitan area has about 1.3 million people, about 15 percent of the state's 8,631,393.

The capitol

The Virginia State Capitol was designed by Thomas Jefferson in 1785 with the French architect Charles-Louis Clérisseau, while Jefferson was in Paris, and was modeled on the Maison Carrée, a Roman temple at Nîmes. The legislature moved in in 1788. It was the first public building in the country in the form of a classical temple, and it holds the only statue of George Washington made from life, by Houdon. Wings were added in 1906 and an underground extension in 2007. The Confederate Congress met in it during the Civil War.

Distances to other cities

Charlottesville and Jefferson's Monticello are about 70 miles northwest.

Related maps

• Virginia map — the whole state with borders, cities and counties.
• Virginia county map · blank Virginia map · printable Virginia map.
• All 50 state capitals on one map, and the state capitals quiz.
• South region · South Atlantic division · Eastern Time Zone.