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Virginia's state legislature is the Virginia General Assembly, which was established in July 1619, making it the oldest current law-making body in North America. Unlike other states, cities and counties in Virginia function as equals, but the state government manages most local roads.
Virginia counties and cities by year of establishment. The Commonwealth of Virginia is divided into 95 counties, along with 38 independent cities that are considered county-equivalents for census purposes, totaling 133 second-level subdivisions. In Virginia, cities are co-equal levels of government to counties, but towns are part of counties.
The Senate chamber of the Virginia State Capitol. The legislative branch or state legislature is the General Assembly. The General Assembly is a bicameral body consisting of a lower house, the Virginia House of Delegates, with 100 members, and an upper house, the Senate of Virginia, with 40 members. Combined, the General Assembly consists of ...
Virginia was one of the original Thirteen Colonies and was admitted as a state on June 25, 1788. [11] Before it declared its independence, Virginia was a colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain. It seceded from the Union on April 17, 1861, [12] and was admitted to the Confederate States of America on May 7, 1861. [13]
After 1851, in a democratic trend spreading across the Union, the state turned to popular elections for office holders. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Francis Harrison Pierpont was the governor of the Union-controlled parts of the state, later of which emerged the new state in the northwest of West Virginia.
The population grew slowly from 700,000 in 1790, to 1 million in 1830, to 1.2 million in 1860. Virginia was the largest state population wise to join the Confederate States in 1861. It became the major theater of war during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Southern Unionists in western Virginia created the separate state of West Virginia in
The state's capital is Richmond and its most populous city is Virginia Beach. Its most populous subdivision is Fairfax County, part of Northern Virginia, where slightly over a third of Virginia's population of 8.7 million live. Eastern Virginia is part of the Atlantic Plain, and the Middle Peninsula forms the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Virginia (officially, the Commonwealth of Virginia) – U.S. state located in the South Atlantic region of the United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" due to its status as a former dominion of the English Crown, [1] and "Mother of Presidents" due to the most U.S. presidents having been born there. The geography and climate of ...