Thomas Fairfax, the only member of the British nobility ever to reside in the colonies, lived at Belvoir before moving to the Shenandoah Valley. Modern Fort Belvoir is partly on the estate of Belvoir Manor, built along the Potomac by William Fairfax in 1741. Gunston Hall, the home of George Mason, is nearby. George Washington settled in Fairfax County and built his home, Mount Vernon, facing the river. The oldest settlements in Fairfax County were along the Potomac River. The Fairfax family name is derived from the Old English phrase for " blond hair", Fæger-feax. It was named after Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781), proprietor of the Northern Neck. Virginian colonists from the Northern Neck region drove the Doeg out of this area and into Maryland by 1670.įairfax County was formed in 1742 from the northern part of Prince William County. Their villages, as recorded by Captain John Smith in 1608, included Namassingakent and Nemaroughquand on the south bank of the Potomac River in what is now Fairfax County. History Īt the time of first European encounter, the inhabitants of what would become Fairfax County were an Algonquian-speaking subgroup called the Taux, also known as the Doeg or Dogue. It is also the headquarters to seven Fortune 500 companies, including three in the Falls Church area, though not in the independent municipality of Falls Church. The county is also home to the flagship campus of George Mason University, as well as the location of Central Intelligence Agency University - Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis, and several campuses of Northern Virginia Community College. The county is home to the headquarters of several intelligence agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, National Counterterrorism Center, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence as well as the headquarters of several aerospace manufacturing and defense industry giants. metropolitan area, is usually included atop or near the top of lists of the wealthiest areas in the United States. Fairfax County, as part of the Washington, D.C. county to reach a six-figure median household income and has the third- highest median household income of any county-level local jurisdiction in the U.S. The county seat is Fairfax, although because it is an independent city under Virginia law, the city of Fairfax is not part of Fairfax County. The county is also the most populous jurisdiction in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, with around 20% of the MSA population, as well as the larger Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area, with around 13% of the CSA population. The county is predominantly suburban in character with some urban and rural pockets.Īs of the 2020 census, the population was 1,150,309, making it Virginia's most populous jurisdiction, with around 13% of the Commonwealth's population. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C.
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