History

The history of Northern Virginia dates back the very beginning of our Nation. In 1607, Jamestown was founded by the British, and became the first permanent settlement.

The area now known as Northern Virginia was in an original land grant from King Charles II on September 18, 1649. Later, the final legal claim was established by Thomas Fairfax in 1736. ( Lord Fairfax ) In 1746, lands north of the Rappahannock River were bounded by the Fairfax Line as a western boundary.

According to documents held by the Handley Regional Library of the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, the grants contained 5,282,000 acres. They included the 22 modern counties of Northumberland, Lancaster, Westmoreland, Stafford, King George, Prince William, Fairfax, Loudoun, Fauquier, Rappahannock, Culpeper, Madison, Clarke, Warren, Page, Shenandoah, and Frederick Counties in Virginia, and Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, and Jefferson Counties in West Virginia.

20th Century and Beyond

The Department of Defense's increasing reliance on information technology companies during the Cold War started the Northern Virginia economy and spurred urban development throughout the region. After the Cold War, prosperity continued to come as the region positioned itself as the "Silicon Valley" of the Eastern United States. Symbolic history was made in early 2001 when local Internet company America Online bought Time Warner, the world's largest traditional media company, near the end of the dot-com bubble days. After the bubble burst, Northern Virginia office vacancy rates went from 2% in 2000 to 20% in 2002.

After 2002, vacancy rates fell below 10% due to increased defense spending as the War on Terrorism began and the government's continued and increasing reliance on private defense contractors.

Affluence

In recent years, the region is becoming known in Virginia and the Washington, DC area for its relative affluence. Of the three large places or counties in the nation that have a median household income in excess of $100,000, the top two are in Northern Virginia, representing over half of the region's population.[30] In 2008, luxury home service Sotheby's International Realty, having three offices in Virginia serving the rest of the state and two in Washington, DC serving the Washington metropolitan area, opened a new office in McLean to sell more high end real estate in Northern Virginia.

Many upscale fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co. have regional presence primarily in Tyson’s Galleria and Fairfax Square despite having boutiques a few miles away in nearby Washington, DC or Maryland neighborhoods. Some brands such as Versace have relocated their regional stores to Northern Virginia, while others including Breguet, De Beers, Ferrari, and Hermès have their only Virginia/Baltimore-Washington location in Northern Virginia.

Economy

In recent decades, Northern Virginia has become home to many technology companies, especially in the Dulles Technology Corridor.[citation needed] These companies included Sprint Nextel and formerly AOL. Other large corporate employers include ExxonMobil near Falls Church, Micron in Manassas, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in Reston and Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Herndon.

The federal government is a major employer in Northern Virginia, which is home to numerous government agencies; these include the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters and the Pentagon (headquarters of the Department of Defense), as well as Fort Myer, Fort Belvoir, Marine Corps Base Quantico, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and the United States Geological Survey.

As of September 2008, the unemployment rate in Northern Virginia is 3.6%.

 Notable companies

    * AES Corporation  * BearingPoint

    * CACI   * Capital One

    * Computer Sciences Corporation   * DynCorp International

    * FHLMC (Freddie Mac)   * Gannett Company

    * General Dynamics    * NII Holdings

    * NVR    * SLM Corporation (Sallie Mae)

    * Airbus North America   * Booz Allen Hamilton

    * Chevy Chase Bank     * FNH USA

    * Kellogg Brown and Root Services    * Mars, Incorporated

    * Navy Federal Credit Union     * Orbital Sciences

    * Rolls-Royce North America     * Space Adventures

    * USA Today     * Volkswagen Group of America