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The Commonwealth of Virginia is a state in the southern United States. Named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, who was known as the Virgin Queen, this commonwealth was one of the original thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. Virginia was the first part of the Americas to be continuously inhabited by English colonists from its founding as a European colony up to the American Revolution. It included area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh along the coast of North America, and at one time it also included Bermuda (or Virgineola). The London Virginia Company became incorporated as a joint stock company by a proprietary charter drawn up on April 10, 1606. The charter granted lands stretching from approximately the 34th parallel (North Carolina) north to approximately the 45th parallel (New York) and from the Atlantic Ocean westward (although the Third Charter of 1612 extended its boundaries far enough across the Atlantic to incorporate Bermuda, which the company had been in possession of since 1609). The capital is Richmond and the largest city is Virginia Beach.
Virginia is known as the “Mother of Presidents”, because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson), more than any other state. Most of the United States’ early presidents were from the state. Virginia has also been known as the “Mother of States”, because portions of the original Colony subsequently became Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia as well as some portions of Ohio.
Virginia is bordered by West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia (across the Potomac River) to the north; by Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east; by North Carolina and Tennessee to the south; and by Kentucky and West Virginia to the west.
The Chesapeake Bay divides the commonwealth, with Virginia’s Eastern Shore, a part of the Delmarva Peninsula, completely separate (an exclave) from the rest of the Commonwealth.
Geographically, Virginia is divided into the following six regions:
* Ridge and Valley—between the Appalachian Plateau and Allegheny Plateau to the west and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east. Sometimes referred to as Valley and Ridge.
* Shenandoah Valley—located within the Ridge and Valley Region; it is referred to geographically—and culturally— as its own region.
* Blue Ridge Mountains—between the Ridge and Valley Region to the west and the Piedmont region to the east.
* Piedmont—between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and the Tidewater region to the east.
* Tidewater—between the fall line to the west and the Atlantic coast to the east; it includes the Eastern Shore.
Virginia’s long east-west axis means that metropolitan northern Virginia lies as close to New York City and New England as to its own rural western panhandle. Conversely, Lee County, at the tip of the panhandle, is closer to eight other state capitals than it is to Richmond, Virginia’s own capital.
Virginia has a number of National Park Service units, including one national park, the Shenandoah National Park.
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