Richmond, Virginia
Capital city of Virginia, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richmond (/ˈrɪtʃmənd/ RITCH-mənd) is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city since 1871. The city's population in the 2020 census was 226,610, up from 204,214 in 2010,[7] making it Virginia's fourth-most populous city.[8] The Richmond metropolitan area, with over 1.3 million residents, is the Commonwealth's third-most populous.
Richmond | |
|---|---|
 Seal | |
| Nickname(s): | |
| Motto(s): Latin: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Thus do we reach the stars) | |
 Interactive map of Richmond | |
  Richmond Location within Virginia  Richmond Location within the contiguous United States | |
| Coordinates: 37°32′27″N 77°26′12″W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Virginia |
| Named for | Richmond, London |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Levar Stoney (D) |
| Area | |
| • City | 62.57 sq mi (162.05 km2) |
| • Land | 59.92 sq mi (155.20 km2) |
| • Water | 2.65 sq mi (6.85 km2) |
| Elevation | 213 ft (65 m) |
| Population (2020) | |
| • City | 226,610 |
| • Rank | 100th in the United States 4th in Virginia |
| • Density | 3,782/sq mi (1,484.75/km2) |
| • Urban | 1,059,150 (US: 44th) |
| • Urban density | 2,067.3/sq mi (798.2/km2) |
| • Metro | 1,339,182 (US: 44th) |
| Demonym | Richmonder |
| GDP | |
| • Richmond (MSA) | $93.615 billion (2022) |
| Time zone | UTC−5 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
| ZIP Codes | 23173, 23218–23242, 23249–23250, 23255, 23260–23261, 23269, 23273–23274, 23276, 23278–23279, 23282, 23284–23286, 23288–23295, 23297–23298 |
| Area codes | 804 and 686 |
| FIPS code | 51-67000[6] |
| GNIS feature ID | 1499957[4] |
| Website | rva |
Nomenclature evolution
Prior to 1071 – Richemont: a town in Normandy, France.1071 to 1501 – Richmond: a castle town in Yorkshire, UK. 1501 to 1742 – Richmond, a palace town in London, UK. 1742 to present – Richmond, Virginia. | |
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Richmond is located at the James River's fall line, 44 mi (71 km) west of Williamsburg, 66 mi (106 km) east of Charlottesville, 91 mi (146 km) east of Lynchburg and 92 mi (148 km) south of Washington, D.C. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, Richmond is at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64 and encircled by Interstate 295, Virginia State Route 150 and Virginia State Route 288. Major suburbs include Midlothian to the southwest, Chesterfield to the south, Varina to the southeast, Sandston to the east, Glen Allen to the north and west, Short Pump to the west, and Mechanicsville to the northeast.[9][10]
Richmond was an important village in the Powhatan Confederacy and was briefly settled by English colonists from Jamestown from 1609 to 1611.[11][12] Founded in 1737, it replaced Williamsburg as the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in 1780. During the Revolutionary War period, several notable events occurred in the city, including Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech in 1775 at St. John's Church and the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom written by Thomas Jefferson. During the American Civil War, Richmond was the capital of the Confederate States of America.
The Jackson Ward neighborhood is the city's traditional hub of African American commerce and culture, once known as the "Black Wall Street of America" and the "Harlem of the South."[13] At the beginning of the 20th century, Richmond had one of the world's first successful electric streetcar systems.
Law, finance, and government primarily drive Richmond's economy. The downtown area is home to federal, state, and local governmental agencies as well as notable legal and banking firms. The greater metropolitan area includes several Fortune 500 companies: Performance Food Group, Altria, CarMax, Dominion Energy, Markel, Owens and Minor, Genworth Financial, and ARKO Corp.[14][15][16] The city is home to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and a Federal Reserve Bank (one of 13 such courts and one of 12 such banks).
Colonial era
After the first permanent English-speaking settlement was established at Jamestown, Virginia, in April 1607, Captain Christopher Newport led explorers northwest up the James River to an inhabited area in the Powhatan Nation.[17] Richmond was Arrohattoc territory where Arrohateck village was located. However, as time progressed relations between the Arrohattocs and English colonists declined, and by 1609 the tribe was unwilling to trade with the settlers. As the population began to dwindle, the tribe declined and was last mentioned in a 1610 report by the visiting William Strachey. By 1611 the tribe's Henrico town was found to be deserted when Sir Thomas Dale went to use the land to found Henricus.[18]
In 1611, the first European settlement in Central Virginia was established at Henricus, where the Falling Creek empties into the James River. In 1619, early Virginia Company settlers established the Falling Creek Ironworks there. Decades of conflicts between the Powhatan and the settlers followed, including the Battle of Bloody Run, fought near Richmond in 1656, after tensions arose from an influx of Manahoacs and Nahyssans from the North. Nonetheless, the James Falls area saw more White settlement in the late 1600s and early 1700s.[19]
In early 1737, planter William Byrd II commissioned Major William Mayo to lay out the original town grid, completed in April. Byrd named the city after the English town of Richmond near (and now part of) London, because the view of the James River's bend at the fall line reminded him of his home at Richmond Hill on the River Thames. [20]In 1742, the settlement was incorporated as a town.[21]
American Revolution
In 1775, Patrick Henry delivered his famous "Give me liberty, or give me death" speech in Richmond's St. John's Church, greatly influencing Virginia's participation in the First Continental Congress and the course of the American Revolution.[22] On April 18, 1780, the state capital was moved from Williamsburg to Richmond, providing a more centralized location for Virginia's increasing western population and theoretically isolating the capital from a British attack from the coast.[23] In 1781, Loyalist troops led by Benedict Arnold led a raid on Richmond and burnt it, leading Governor Thomas Jefferson to flee while the Virginia militia, led by Sampson Mathews, unsuccessfully defended the city.[24]
Early United States
Richmond recovered quickly from the war, thriving within a year of its burning.[25] In 1786, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, was enacted, separating church and state and advancing the legal principle for freedom of religion in the United States.[26] In 1788, the Virginia State Capitol, designed by Jefferson and Charles-Louis Clérisseau in the Greek Revival style, was completed.
To bypass Richmond's rapids on the upper James River and provide a water route across the Appalachian Mountains to the Kanawha River, which flows westward into the Ohio River and converges with the Mississippi River, George Washington helped design the James River and Kanawha Canal.[27] The canal started in Westham and cut east to Richmond, facilitating the transfer of cargo from flat-bottomed James River bateaux above the fall line to the ocean-faring ships below.[27] The canal boatmen legacy is represented by the figure in the center of the city flag.[28]
Because of the canal and the hydropower the falls generated, Richmond emerged as an important industrial center after the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). It became home to some of the largest manufacturing facilities, including iron works and flour mills, in