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Northern Virginia comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C. With 2.8 million residents (about a third of the state), it is the most populous region of Virginia and the Washington metropolitan area.〔(N.Va. leads the way in growth )〕〔(Demographics & Workforce Data and Research for Virginia )〕〔(American FactFinder )〕 As the term is most often used, it excludes such areas as Warren County and Winchester; "Northeastern Virginia" more closely approximates the area usually meant. Communities in the region form the Virginia portion of the Washington Metropolitan Area and the larger Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. Northern Virginia is the highest-income region of Virginia, having seven of the 20 highest-income counties in the nation, including the three highest .〔(Matt Woolsey, America's Richest Counties, Forbes.com, 01.22.08, 6:00 PM ET ) Forbes.com website. Retrieved on 2008-02-08.〕 Northern Virginia's transportation infrastructure includes major airports Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles International, several lines of the Washington Metro subway system, the Virginia Railway Express suburban commuter rail system, transit bus services, bicycle lanes and trails, and an extensive network of Interstate highways and expressways. Notable features of the region include the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, and the many companies which serve them and the federal government. The area's attractions include various monuments and Colonial and Civil War-era sites such as Mount Vernon and Arlington National Cemetery. It is the most affluent region in the nation.〔(Will Northern Virginia Become the 51st State? )〕 ==Etymology== The region is often spelled "northern Virginia", although according to the USGS Correspondence Handbook the 'n' in Northern Virginia should be capitalized as it is a place name rather than a direction or general area.〔(USGS Correspondence Handbook )〕 The name "Northern Virginia" does not seem to have been used in the early history of the area. According to Johnston, some early documents and land grants refer to the "Northern Neck of Virginia" (see Northern Neck Proprietary), and they describe an area which began on the east at the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay and includes a territory that extended west, including all the land between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, with a western boundary called the Fairfax line.〔 The Fairfax line, surveyed in 1746, ran from the first spring of the Potomac (still marked today by the Fairfax Stone) to the first spring of the Rappahannock, at the head of the Conway River.〔 The Northern Neck was composed of , and was larger in area than five of the modern U.S. states.〔 Early development of the northern portion of Virginia was in the easternmost area of that early land grant, which encompasses the modern counties of Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, and Westmoreland. At some point, these eastern counties came to be called separately simply "the Northern Neck", and, for the remaining area west of them, the term was no longer used. (By some definitions, King George County is also included in the Northern Neck, which is now considered a separate region from Northern Virginia.〔The Official Guide of Virginia's Northern Neck (2007), Northern Neck Tourism Council〕) One of the most prominent early mentions of "Northern Virginia" (sans the word ''Neck'') as a title was the naming of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Northern Virginia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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