VIRGINIA (Neo-Lat.. named in honor of Queen Elizabeth, the 'Virgin Queen'). A South Atlantic State of the United States, known pop ularly as the 'Old Dominion.' It lies between latitudes 36° 3L' and 39° 27' N., longitudes 75° 13' and 83° 37' W., and is bounded on the north by West Virginia and Maryland, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by North Carolina and Tennessee. and on the west by Kentucky. The southern boundary is a straight line 440 miles long, but the others are extremely irregular, following various Appalachian ridges on the northwest and the Potomac River on the northeast. The greatest breadth from north to south is 192 miles. The State includes the narrow peninsula lying between lower Chesa peake Bay and the ocean. The total area of Virginia is 42.450 square miles, including 2,325 square miles of water. It ranks thirtieth in size among the States in total area, and thirty-second in land area.
ToroGa.tedY. The three great topographical regions which rise in broad, low terraces from the Atlantic coast of the United States—the Coastal I'lain. the Piedmont Plain, and the Ap palachian region—Pross the State in parallel hands from southwest to northeast. Two of these are further differentiated, so that six well-marked regions are recognized. The first is the tidewater country. which includes the region traversed by the four estuaries of the Po tonla e, Rapp ha nneek. York. and ,lances rivers, and the peninsula east of Chesapeake Bay. This is a low, level, and marshy region, watered by a multitude of tidal inlets. (-reeks. and rivers. On ihe west the land rises by a low, rocky escarp meat to the Piedmont Plain, whose eastern por tion is known as the middle country. The latter has an elevation of 100 to 500 feet, and is drier and more undulating than tidewater Virginia.
It terminates on the west at a broken line of hills known as the Coast Mountains, from which the Piedmont section proper extends westward to the foot of the Blue Ridge. The Piedmont section has an elevation of from 500 to 1000 feet, and is rugged compared with eastern Vir ginia, having isolated knobs and ridges rising 100 to 600 feet above the general level. The Blue Ridge is considered as a region by itself, being the most prominent topographical feature of the State. It rises abruptly from the Piedmont Plain to a height of 1500 feet above it, or 2500 to over 3000 feet above the sea. The ridge is broken in places, notably by the Potomac on the northern State boundary and by the James River farther south. In the southwest it widens out into a triangular plateau, which on its western border bears the highest elevations in the State—Rogers Mountain, 5719 .feet, and White Top, 5530 feet above the sea. North of this plateau the ridge is rathdr narrow and falls steeply on the west into the magnificent Great Valley, known in the north as the Shenandoah, and farther north, in Pennsylvania, as the Cum berland Valley. This is a continuous longi tudinal depression about 20 miles wide, with its floor about 1200 feet above the sea. West of the valley lies the Appalachian section, a succession of numerous narrow and broken but parallel ridges running from southwest to northeast, and inclosing equally narrow longitudinal valleys. The ridges are generally about 3500 feet in eleva tion, and are known under a imiltitude of local names, though collectively they form the Alle ghany Mountains in the northeast and the Cum berland Mountains in the southwest.