Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county, which is located in the Washington metropolitan area and the broader Northern Virginia region, is positioned directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., the national capital, on the river's southwestern bank. The smallest self-governing county in the United States by area, Arlington County has both suburban and urbanized districts. Its urban areas are located in proximity to several Washington Metro stations and lines. Arlington's seat of government is located in the Court House neighborhood, which hosts many of its administrative offices and the county courthouse.
Arlington was originally inhabited by the Nacotchtank people prior to the establishment of the Colony of Virginia in 1606. English colonists began settling in Arlington by the 1670s; the area was designated as part of Fairfax County in 1742. The colonial-era economy was mostly based in tobacco agriculture operated with enslaved labor and indentured servants on large plantations. Following the end of the Revolutionary War, Arlington's planters and yeoman farmers transitioned to other crops. Virginia ceded present-day Arlington to help form the District of Columbia, and beginning in 1801, the area was known as Alexandria County. It was eventually retroceded back to Virginia in 1847 as a result of pressure from Alexandria, which was the county's primary commercial center.
During the Civil War, Arlington formed part of the Union's defenses of Washington, which devastated its landscape and economy. Virginia's Reconstruction-era Constitution of 1870, in addition to administratively separating Arlington from Alexandria, empowered its black community to participate in local and state elections, which changed the political dynamics of the county until local conservative Southern Democrats succeeded in reestablishing white supremacy by the 1880s. This facilitated the institution of Jim Crow laws and racial segregation in Arlington by the early 20th century. Developers and local politicians further ingrained these practices in Arlington as it experienced a boom in suburbanization with its expanding interurban trolley network starting in the 1880s and a continued influx of federal employees into the 1950s. …