Virginia map

Where Virginia is

Virginia is the Mid-Atlantic state south of the Potomac River, reaching from the Atlantic coast west into the Appalachians. It is about 430 miles from the Eastern Shore to the Cumberland Gap and about 200 miles north to south. Clockwise from the north: Maryland and Washington, DC across the Potomac, Maryland again down the Eastern Shore, the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay, North Carolina along a surveyed line near 36°30'N, Tennessee along the same latitude in the southwest, Kentucky along the Cumberland Mountain crest, and West Virginia along the Allegheny ridges and a jagged surveyed line to the west and north. It is the 12th most populous state and 35th by area.

Major cities

Virginia's 38 independent cities are not part of any county, which is why the state counts 95 counties plus 38 cities as 133 county-equivalents. Northern Virginia's largest jurisdiction, Fairfax County, is not a city and holds about 1.15 million people, more than any city in the state.

Geography

• Highest point — Mount Rogers, 5,729 ft, in the Blue Ridge of Grayson County near the North Carolina and Tennessee lines.
• Five provinces — Tidewater (the coastal plain to the fall line), the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge, the Valley and Ridge with the Shenandoah Valley, and the Appalachian Plateau in the far southwest coalfields. See the Appalachian Mountains map.
• Chesapeake Bay — the largest estuary in the US; its mouth between Cape Charles and Cape Henry is crossed by the 17.6-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel. See the coastlines map.
• Rivers — the Potomac, Rappahannock, York and James all flow southeast into the bay; the Shenandoah drains the valley north to the Potomac at Harpers Ferry; the New River flows north across the southwest into West Virginia, and the Roanoke flows into North Carolina.
• Lakes — no large natural lakes; Smith Mountain Lake, Lake Anna and the Virginia side of John H. Kerr Reservoir (Buggs Island Lake) are the largest reservoirs. Lake Drummond in the Great Dismal Swamp is one of two natural lakes.

Borders

The Maryland border was set by the 1632 Maryland charter at the south bank of the Potomac, so Maryland owns the river up to Virginia's low-water line; the Supreme Court reaffirmed this in 2003. The land Virginia gave to the District of Columbia in 1791 was returned in 1847, which is why the Potomac is the DC border too. The North Carolina line was surveyed in 1728 along 36°30'N, and the Tennessee line continued it in 1802, drifting slightly. West Virginia's border, set when the state split in 1863, follows the eastern Allegheny ridges and the old county lines, producing the jagged Eastern Panhandle notch. The Kentucky line follows Cumberland Mountain and the Tug Fork headwaters.

Regions of Virginia

Northern Virginia (the DC suburbs of Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun and Prince William), the Shenandoah Valley (Winchester, Harrisonburg, Staunton), Central Virginia (Richmond, Charlottesville), Hampton Roads or Tidewater (Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News), the Eastern Shore across the bay, the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula, Southside along the North Carolina line, the Roanoke Valley and Southwest Virginia (Blacksburg, Bristol, the coalfields).

Related maps

• Virginia county map — 95 counties and 38 independent cities.
• Blank Virginia map — outline for printing.
• Printable Virginia map.
• Richmond — the capital since 1780, when it replaced Williamsburg.
• Washington, DC — across the Potomac from Northern Virginia.
• Neighbors: Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia.
• South, South Atlantic division, Mid-Atlantic, Eastern Time Zone.
• Geography: Appalachian Mountains, coastlines, Mason–Dixon Line.