BRISTOL, an urban unit on the Tennessee-Virginia (United States) boundary line, formed of two adjoining cities, one in Sulli van county, Tenn., the other in Washington county, Virginia. The State line runs through the main business street, and each city is necessarily a distinct political unit, though in other respects they are practically a single community. They are on Federal highway II and are served by the Norfolk and Western and the Southern railways. The combined population in 1920 was 14,776 (8,047 in Tennessee, 6,729 in Virginia), of whom 2,001 were negroes; and in 1930, 20,845, in Tennessee 12,005, in Virginia 8,84o.
Bristol is in the midst of beautiful mountain scenery, within Iom. of the Unaka National Forest. The city has an elevation of I , 7 6of t. and neighbouring peaks range from 3,80o to 5,000ft. above the sea. It is surrounded by vast timber resources and mineral deposits in four States. Coal comes from mines only 7om. away. It is a shipping point for tobacco, butter, cheese and iron, and has a variety of manufacturing industries (the greater part on the Vir ginia side) whose output in 1925 was valued at $9,070,436. King college, a Presbyterian institution for men, is on the Tennessee side ; Sullins college and Virginia Intermont college, both for women, on the Virginia side. At Emory, Va., 25m. N.E., is Emory and Henry College, a co-educational institution founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1836. Bristol, Va., was known as Goodson before its incorporation as a city in 1890. It has a city-manager form of government, and is administratively independent of Washington county.