VIRGINIA, "The Old Dominion," is the most southerly of the middle Atlantic group of States in the United States of Amer ica, and lies between 36° 3o' and 39° 37' N. lat., and 75° 15' and 83° 4o' W. long. The Potomac river separates it on the north from Maryland, except east of Chesapeake bay where the boundary is a parallel of latitude. Another parallel of latitude separates it on the south from North Carolina and Tennessee. On the east lies the Atlantic ocean, along which the State pos sesses a tidal shore-line, following indentations, of 78o miles. The States of Kentucky and West Virginia form the western boundary. The total area is 42,627 sq.m., of which 2,365 sq.m. are water surface included in land-locked bays and harbours, rivers and lakes. In length east and west along the southern boundary the State measures about 44o m., its extreme breadth north and south is about 200 miles. The State is the remnant of a much greater area named by Sir Walter Raleigh "Virginia" in honour of Queen Elizabeth, who was known as "The Virgin Queen." Physiography.—Virginia is crossed from north-east to south west by three distinct physiographic provinces, which, named from east to west, are : The Coastal plain or Tidewater re gion, including the Eastern Shore; (2) The Piedmont plateau; (3) the Appalachian Mountain province. The latter is sometimes subdivided (from east to west) into the Blue Ridge, Great valley and Alleghany ridges. The Tidewater province occupies about I,000 square miles. Once the plain of which it is formed was raised to a higher elevation above sea level than now, and it was much dissected by streams. When it was subsequently de pressed, the sea invaded these stream valleys to form the branch ing bays which characterize the region. Chief of these are the long estuaries of the lower Potomac, Rappahannock, York and James rivers. Chesapeake bay, into which these flow, is itself the drowned lower course of the Susquehanna. The land between these arms of the ocean is relatively flat. In the south-east, where the drainage is particularly poor, is the Great Dismal Swamp (q.v.), a fresh-water marsh covering 70o square miles. Along the shores of Chesapeake bay and the Atlantic ocean are low, sandy beaches, often enclosing lagoons or salt marshes. Westward the Tidewater province reaches to the "fall-line" of the rivers, ap proximated by a line drawn north and south through Richmond.
The largest of the physiographic provinces, the Piedmont pla teau, extends from an elevation of 150 to 30o ft. along the "fall line" westward to an elevation of 700 to 1,200 ft. along the foot of the Blue Ridge. It varies in width from 4o m. in the north to about 175 m. along the southern border. The sloping surface is gently rolling, and has resulted from the uplift and dissection of a nearly level plain of erosion developed on folded crystalline rocks. Occasional hard rock ridges rise to a moderate elevation.
The mountain belt known as the Blue Ridge, from 3 to 20 m. in breadth, passes entirely across the State from north-east to south-west and forms the division between the Piedmont plateau and the Great valley. In elevation it varies from 1,460 ft. at Harper's Ferry, where the Potomac breaks through it in a pic turesque water-gap, to 5,719 ft. in Mt. Rogers, Grayson county, the highest point in the State. In the north the range is narrow, but southward it broadens toward a greater expansion in west North Carolina and east Tennessee. Most of the rivers flowing through the Piedmont district to the Tidewater region have their origin on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge, but two of the largest, the James and Roanoke rivers, have cut passes through from the Great valley where they have their origin.
The Great valley is in its general configuration one continuous valley between the two great mountain ranges extending diagonally across the State, but it is drained by five separate rivers, each with its separate valley. The Shenandoah river drains the northern one-third and flows north into the Potomac at Harper's Ferry. The middle one-third is drained by the upper tributaries of the James and Roanoke rivers which break through the Blue Ridge and flow east. The southern one-third of the valley is drained by the New river, which breaks through the Allegheny ridges to the west and flows to the Ohio, and by the Holston river, which flows south-west into Tennessee. The valley averages from 25 to 3o m. in width and rises in elevation from 30o f t. at Harper's Ferry to about 1,70o ft. in south-west Virginia. Its formations are mostly of limestone, which accounts for the many remarkable caves in the region, and the famous Natural bridge, 215 ft. high, in Rock bridge county.