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24-713: The Greater Richmond Region is located in the central part of Virginia. It straddles the Fall Line , where the coastal plain and the Piedmont come together on the James River at Richmond and the Appomattox River at Petersburg. The English established each as a colonial port in the 17th century. The Greater Richmond Metro region is considered to be the southern extension of the Northeast megalopolis . Since

48-871: A bit below 200,000 but coming back in 2008 to 204,000 people again. The region is located approximately equidistant from Northern Virginia , Hampton Roads , and Lynchburg . The area is home to the state's center of gravity of population—which, in 1980, was located thirty miles west of Richmond near the Powhatan-Goochland County border. The median age for the MSA was 36.7 years. For people reporting one race alone, 66 percent were White; 30 percent were Black or African American; less than 0.5 percent were American Indian and Alaskan Native; 2.75 percent were Asian; less than 0.5 percent were Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and 1 percent were some other race. One percent reported two or more races. Three percent of

72-608: A major gain, with the building or renovations of many new arenas, including the Landmark Theater , Carpenter Center, CenterStage, and the creation of an art walk, the First Fridays Art Walk, occurring on the first Friday of every month on Broad Street in Downtown Richmond , drawing crowds of over 20,000 people. The population has seen its ups and downs, with the city of Richmond itself dropping

96-534: A portion of I-95 and I-85. I-295 opened in 1992. It was the last segment of Virginia's interstate system, forming an eastern bypass of Richmond and Petersburg. The Richmond-Petersburg region is also located along several major rail lines operated by CSX Transportation , Norfolk Southern Railway , and the Buckingham Branch Railroad . The area has four passenger stations served by Amtrak : The Department of Rail and Public Transportation of

120-629: A state constitutional change in 1871, all incorporated cities in Virginia have been independent cities and are not legally located in any county. The OMB considers these independent cities to be county-equivalents to define MSAs in Virginia. Each MSA is listed by its counties, then cities, each in alphabetical order and not by size. The area includes four independent cities (listed in order of population): The three smaller cities (Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights) are located near each other in an area south of Richmond and are known collectively as

144-533: Is a 900-mile (1,400 km) escarpment where the Piedmont and Atlantic coastal plain meet in the eastern United States . Much of the Atlantic Seaboard fall line passes through areas where no evidence of faulting is present. The fall line marks the geologic boundary of hard metamorphosed terrain—the product of the Taconic orogeny —and the sandy, relatively flat alluvial plain of

168-528: Is based on family composition, size, and income level. In the Richmond/Petersburg MSA, nine percent of children under age 18 were below the poverty line, and eight percent of people 65 years old and over were below the poverty line. Five percent of all families, and 15 percent of families with a female householder and no husband present had incomes below the poverty level. The unemployment rate was 4.6%. In 2004, there were 397,000 households in

192-457: Is growing steadily, adding nearly 400,000 residents in the past two decades. This has resulted in major suburban sprawl, particularly in Henrico and Chesterfield Counties, which have populations over 300,000. This also resulted in boosts in its economy, the building of malls, more national attention, and major sporting events and concerts coming to Richmond. Its arts and culture scene has also seen

216-787: The Tennessee border. [2] An international deepwater terminal is located at the Port of Richmond on the James River which is navigable for shipping to Hampton Roads , the Chesapeake Bay , and the Atlantic Ocean . Richmond International Airport is located in Henrico County , five miles east of the city center. The airport serves domestic destinations, primarily in the Midwest, South, and Northeast, and as recently as

240-570: The " Tri-cities ". The following counties are included in the Richmond MSA: The Richmond-Petersburg metropolitan area includes many unincorporated towns and communities . Note: This is only a partial listing. The Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which includes three other cities (Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights) and adjacent counties, is home to approximately 1.3 million Virginians or 15.1% of Virginia's population. The Richmond region

264-635: The 1980s. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first Democrat to carry the metropolitan area in decades. Since then, it has remained Democratic at the presidential level and, along with northern Virginia , has kept the state of Virginia in the Democratic column. The applicable Metropolitan Statistical Area for the Richmond-Petersburg region is the Richmond, VA MSA . The Richmond MSA employs a total of approximately 677,000 workers. In order of

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288-486: The 2010s, it served international destinations, including Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas. In recent years, it has seen remarkable growth in demand, adding non-stop routes such as San Francisco , Las Vegas , Los Angeles , New Orleans , and Phoenix–Sky Harbor , with seasonal routes to Providence and Minneapolis/St. Paul , among other destinations. The Virginia State Capitol is in the historic Capitol Square. Also,

312-711: The Greater Richmond Partnership bring together elected leadership of local government with leaders from business and industry to coordinate initiatives to foster economic prosperity. In the non-profit sector, The Community Foundation for a greater Richmond, one of the largest Community Foundations in the country, supports a wide range of projects with both competitive results-based grants and donor-directed philanthropy as well as more than 60 academic scholarship programs. Visit Central Virginia Atlantic Seaboard fall line Download coordinates as: The Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line , or Fall Zone ,

336-414: The Richmond/Petersburg MSA. The average household size was 2.6 people. In 2004, 85 percent of people 25 years and over had at least graduated from high school, and 33 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher. Among people 16 to 19 years old, nine percent were not in school; they were not enrolled and had not graduated from high school. Several of the most heavily traveled highways in the state transverse

360-851: The State of Virginia has studies underway for extending high-speed passenger rail service to the Virginia Peninsula and South Hampton Roads areas with a rail connection at Richmond to service along both the Northeast Corridor and the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor . [1] . Another project, known as Transdominion Express , would extend from Richmond west to Lynchburg and from Washington, DC ( Alexandria ) south via an existing Virginia Railway Express route to Manassas , extending on south to Charlottesville , Lynchburg, Roanoke and Bristol on

384-541: The area, which includes the junctions of Interstate 64 (which runs east-west), and Interstate Highways 85 and 95 (which run north-south). A comprehensive network of Interstate bypasses and spurs and several non-interstate expressways also serve the area. Tolls fund several of these local roads, although tolls have long been removed from the area's first limited access highway, the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike , which opened in 1958 and now forms

408-511: The ascent of the tide; the falls of every river within that space being precisely at the head of the tide; pursuing thence southwardly a direction nearly parallel to the mountains, it recedes from the sea, leaving in each southern river an extent of good navigation between the tide and the falls. Other falls of less magnitude are found at the gaps of the Blue Ridge , through which the rivers have forced their passage... Some cities that lie along

432-474: The entire Richmond-Petersburg region, helps insulate it from hardship due to economic fluctuation in particular sectors of the economy. The region's central location also allows it to benefit from growth in other regions of Virginia and the state as a whole. Several economic and community development entities, both public and private, serve the Greater Richmond area. Government-linked entities such as

456-516: The fall line as an obstacle to improved national communication and commerce between the Atlantic seaboard and the western river systems: The most prominent, though not perhaps the most insuperable obstacle in the navigation of the Atlantic rivers, consists in their lower falls, which are ascribed to a presumed continuous granite ridge, rising about one hundred and thirty feet above tide water. That ridge from New York to James River inclusively arrests

480-411: The necessary portage around them. Numerous cities initially formed along the fall line because of the easy river transportation to seaports, as well the availability of water power to operate mills and factories, thus bringing together river traffic and industrial labor. U.S. Route 1 and I-95 link many of the fall-line cities. In 1808, Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin noted the significance of

504-793: The new U.S. Courthouse was opened in 2010, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is located in Richmond, as well, along with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond . Richmond itself and Petersburg are strongly Democratic . The suburbs began trending Republican nationally as early as the 1950s; Henrico County , for instance, went Republican in every election from 1952 to 2004. However, conservative Byrd Democrats continued to hold most suburban local offices and state legislative seats well into

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528-426: The number of workers, the major employment categories of the region are services; retail trade; manufacturing; state government; finance, insurance and real estate; local government; construction; wholesale trade; transportation and public utilities and federal government. Important manufacturing categories include tobacco, chemicals, printing and publishing, paper, and wood products. This economic diversity, typical of

552-423: The people in the Richmond/Petersburg MSA were Hispanic. Sixty-three percent of the people in the Richmond/Petersburg MSA were White non-Hispanic. People of Hispanic origin may be of any race. The median house income for the MSA was $ 59,468. The median family income was $ 65,289. The Per Capita income was $ 27,887. In 2004, seven percent of people were in poverty. Poverty status is determined by the U.S. Census Bureau and

576-508: The upper continental shelf, formed of unconsolidated Cretaceous and Cenozoic sediments . Examples of Fall Zone features include the Potomac River's Little Falls and the rapids in Richmond, Virginia , where the James River falls across a series of rapids down to its own tidal estuary. Before navigation improvements, such as locks, the fall line was generally the head of navigation on rivers due to their rapids or waterfalls, and

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