Interstate 95

Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Atlantic Ocean and U.S. Highway 1, serving areas between Florida and New England inclusive. In general, I-95 serves metropolitan areas such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, and Richmond, Fayetteville, Savannah, Jacksonville, and Miami in the Southeast. The route follows a more direct inland route between Washington, D.C. and Savannah, notably bypassing the coastal metropolitan areas of Norfolk-Virginia Beach and Charleston, which require connections through other Interstate Highways.

I-95 is one of the oldest routes of the Interstate Highway System, yet its completion is still dependent on a project in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that is scheduled to be finished by 2018. Currently, its role in that region has been filled in mainly by I-295, by I-195, and by an unsigned portion of the New Jersey Turnpike in Southern New Jersey. Many sections of I-95 incorporated pre-existing sections of toll roads where they served the same right of way. I-95's two pieces total 1,919.74 mi (3,090 km). The southern terminus of I-95 is at U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, while the northern terminus is at the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing with New Brunswick, Canada.

Virginia

Virginia (ⁱ/vərˈdʒɪnjə/ vər-JIN-yə, UK /vərˈdʒɪniə/ vər-JIN-ee-ə), officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state located in the South Atlantic region of the United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" due to its status as the first colonial possession established in mainland British America, and "Mother of Presidents" because eight U.S. presidents were born there, more than any other state. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna. The capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond; Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealth's estimated population as of 2014 is over 8.3 million.

The area's history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony. Slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colony's early politics and plantation economy. Virginia was one of the 13 Colonies in the American Revolution and joined the Confederacy in the American Civil War, during which Richmond was made the Confederate capital and Virginia's northwestern counties seceded to form the state of West Virginia. Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, both major national parties are competitive in modern Virginia.

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond (/ˈrɪtʃmənd/ RICH-mənd) is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and the Greater Richmond Region. While it was incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city since 1871.

As of the 2010 census, the population was 204,214; in 2014, the population was estimated to be 217,853, the fourth-most populous city in Virginia. The Richmond Metropolitan Area has a population of 1,260,029, the third-most populous metro in the state.

Richmond is located at the fall line of the James River, 44 miles (71 km) west of Williamsburg, 66 miles (106 km) east of Charlottesville, and 98 miles (158 km) south of Washington, D.C. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, the city is located at the intersections of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64, and encircled by Interstate 295 and Virginia State Route 288. Major suburbs include Midlothian to the southwest, Glen Allen to the north and west, Short Pump to the west and Mechanicsville to the northeast.

Northern Virginia

Northern Virginia–commonly referred to as NOVA–comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C. With 2.8 million residents (about a third of the state), it is the most populous region of Virginia and the Washington metropolitan area. As the term is most often used, it excludes such areas as Warren County and Winchester; "Northeastern Virginia" more closely approximates the area usually meant.

Communities in the region form the Virginia portion of the Washington Metropolitan Area and the larger Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. Northern Virginia is the highest-income region of Virginia, having seven of the 20 highest-income counties in the nation, including the three highest as of 2009.

Northern Virginia's transportation infrastructure includes major airports Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles International, several lines of the Washington Metro subway system, the Virginia Railway Express suburban commuter rail system, transit bus services, bicycle lanes and trails, and an extensive network of Interstate highways and expressways.

U.S. Route 1

U.S. Route 1 (US 1) is a major north–south U.S. Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs 2,369 miles (3,813 km), from Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, south to Key West, Florida, making it the longest north-south road in the United States. US 1 is generally paralleled by Interstate 95, though the former is significantly farther west (inland) between Jacksonville, Florida, and Petersburg, Virginia. The highway connects most of the major cities of the east coast, including Miami, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, passing from the Southeastern United States to New England.

While US 1 is generally the easternmost of the main north–south U.S. Highways, part of Routes 9, 13, 15, 17, 21, occupy corridors closer to the ocean. When the road system was laid out in the 1920s, US 1 was mostly assigned to the existing Atlantic Highway, which followed the Fall Line between the Piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain north of Augusta, Georgia. At the time, the highways farther east were of lower quality and did not serve the major population centers. At the time of its construction, Route 99 was its equivalent along the western coast of the United States, before being succeeded by Route 101 which is currently replaced by Interstate 5 as the main highway.