🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <30157g$hpg@panix2.panix.com>, pak@panix.com (Peter Kronenberg) writes:
|> 
|> But Falls Church is *in* Fairfax County, isn't it?  I'm just moving to the
|> area (from New Jersey) and I'm real confused at how the city/county
|> structure works in Northern Va.
|> 


Virginia recognizes at least three kinds of incorporated entities: counties,
cities, and towns. (I don't know about villages, and there are probably
some intermediate entities for special purposes.)

Unlike most of the country, including New Jersey, it is _not_ true in 
Virginia that every piece of land is part of a county.  Instead, every
piece of land is in either a county _or_ a city.  Cities are not 
parts of counties; they are independent of them. (If you like, you
can think of a city as being a county of its own.)

Cities in Northern Virginia include Falls Church, Fairfax (city), and
Alexandria.  Norfolk is also a city, and I suspect that Richmond 
is, too.

Towns _are_ parts of counties. Vienna is a town in the county of 
Fairfax, as is (I believe) Herndon.

McLean and Great Falls are neither cities nor towns.  They are
on unincorporated land in Fairfax county.  

The post office does not make sure that its designations match
the political boundaries.  Although I live in unincorporated
land in Fairfax County, my mailing address is Falls Church.


Julian C. Lander
jclander@mitre.org