Blue Ridge Mountains - Wikipedia

Mountain range in the Eastern U.S.

Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains as seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway near Mount Mitchell in North Carolina
Highest point
Peak	Mount Mitchell
Elevation	6,684 ft (2,037 m)
Coordinates	35°45′53″N 82°15′55″W / 35.76472°N 82.26528°W / 35.76472; -82.26528
Geography
Country	United States
States	North Carolina Virginia Tennessee Maryland Pennsylvania South Carolina Georgia Alabama
Parent range	Appalachian Mountains
Geology
Orogeny	Grenville orogeny
Rock types	granite gneiss limestone

The Blue Ridge Mountains (Cherokee: ᏌᎪᏂᎨ ᏣᎴᎩ, Sagonige Tsalegi, "blue mountain ridge") are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles (885 km) southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia.[1] The province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap.[2] To the west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range.

The Blue Ridge Mountains are known for having a bluish color when seen from a distance. Trees put the "blue" in Blue Ridge, from the isoprene released into the atmosphere.[3] This contributes to the characteristic haze on the mountains and their perceived color.[4]

Within the Blue Ridge province are two major national parks: Shenandoah National Park in the northern section and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the southern section. The Blue Ridge Parkway, a 469-mile (755 km) long scenic highway, connects the two parks and runs along the ridge crest-lines, as does the Appalachian Trail.[5] Eight national forests include George Washington and Jefferson, Cherokee, Pisgah, Nantahala and Chattahoochee.

Geography

[edit] See also: List of mountains of the Blue Ridge and Southern Sixers

Although the term "Blue Ridge" is sometimes applied exclusively to the eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains, the geological definition of the Blue Ridge province extends westward to the Ridge and Valley area, encompassing the Great Smoky Mountains, the Great Balsams, the Roans, the Blacks, and other mountain ranges. In North Carolina, two lower elevation ranges to the east, referred to as foothills, are also often included as "spurs" of the Blue Ridge: the Brushy Mountains and the South Mountains. In Virginia, the Southwest Mountains are an anticlinal range that similarly parallels the Blue Ridge.

The Blue Ridge extends as far south as Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia and as far north into Pennsylvania as South Mountain. While South Mountain dwindles to hills between Gettysburg and Harrisburg, the band of ancient rocks that form the core of the Blue Ridge continues northeast through the New Jersey and Hudson River highlands, eventually reaching the Berkshires of Massachusetts and the Green Mountains of Vermont.

The Blue Ridge contains the highest mountains in eastern North America south of Baffin Island. About 125 peaks exceed 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in elevation.[6] The highest peak in the Blue Ridge (and in the entire Appalachian chain) is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet (2,037 m). There are 39 peaks in North Carolina and Tennessee higher than 6,000 feet (1,800 m); by comparison, in the northern portion of the Appalachian chain only New Hampshire's Mount Washington rises above 6,000 feet (1,800 m). Southern Sixers is a term used by peak baggers for this group of mountains.[7]

The Blue Ridge Parkway runs 469 miles (755 km) along crests of the southern Appalachians and links two national parks: Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains. In many places along the parkway, there are metamorphic rocks (gneiss) with folded bands of light-and dark-colored minerals, which sometimes look like the folds and swirls in a marble cake.

Geology

[edit]

Most of the rocks that form the Blue Ridge Mountains are ancient granitic charnockites, metamorphosed volcanic formations, and sedimentary limestone. Recent studies completed by Richard Tollo, a professor and geologist at George Washington University, provide greater insight into the petrologic and geochronologic history of the Blue Ridge basement suites. Modern studies have found that the basement geology of the Blue Ridge is made of compositionally unique gneisses and granitoids, including orthopyroxene-bearing charnockites. Analysis of zircon minerals in the granite completed by John Aleinikoff at the U.S. Geological Survey has provided more detailed emplacement ages.

Many of the features found in the Blue Ridge and documented by Tollo and others have confirmed that the rocks exhibit many similar features in other North American Grenville-age terranes. The lack of a calc-alkaline affinity and zircon ages less than 1.2 billion years old suggest that the Blue Ridge is distinct from the Adirondacks, Green Mountains, and possibly the New York–New Jersey Highlands. The petrologic and geochronologic data suggest that the Blue Ridge basement is a composite orogenic crust that was emplaced during several episodes from a crustal magma source. Field relationships further illustrate that rocks emplaced prior to 1.078–1.064 billion years ago preserve deformational features. Those emplaced post-1.064 billion years ago generally have a massive texture and missed the main episode of Mesoproterozoic compression.[8]

At the time of their emergence, the Blue Ridge were among the highest mountains in the world and reached heights comparable to the much younger Alps. Weathering, erosion, and mass wasting over hundreds of millions of years has resulted in much shorter peaks.[9]

History

[edit]

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At the foot of the Blue Ridge, various tribes including the Siouan Manahoacs, the Iroquois, and the Shawnee hunted and fished. A German physician-explorer, John Lederer, first reached the crest of the Blue Ridge in 1669 and again the following year; he also recorded the Virginia Siouan name for the Blue Ridge (Ahkonshuck).

At the Treaty of Albany negotiated by Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood with the Iroquois between 1718 and 1722, the Iroquois ceded lands they had conquered south of the Potomac River and east of the Blue Ridge to the Virginia Colony. This treaty made the Blue Ridge the new demarcation point between the areas and tribes subject to the Six Nations, and those tributaries to the colony. When colonists began to disregard this by crossing the Blue Ridge and settling in the Shenandoah Valley in the 1730s, the Iroquois began to object, finally selling their rights to the valley, on the west side of the Blue Ridge, at the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744.

Flora and fauna

[edit]

Flora

[edit] See also: Category: Flora of the Appalachian Mountains

The Blue Ridge Mountains have stunted oak and oak-hickory forest habitats, which comprise most of the Appalachian slope forests. Flora also includes grass, shrubs, hemlock and mixed-oak pine forests.[10]

While the Blue Ridge range includes the highest summits in the eastern United States, the climate is nevertheless too warm to support an alpine zone, and thus the range lacks the tree line found at lower elevations in the northern half of the Appalachian range. Statistical modelling predicts that the alpine tree line would exist at above 7,985 feet (2434 m) in the climate zone and latitude of the southern Appalachians.[11] The highest parts of the Blue Ridge are generally vegetated in dense Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forests.[citation needed]

Fauna

[edit]

The area is host to many animals, including:

• Many species of amphibians and reptiles
• Ocoee salamander
• A large diversity of fish species, many of which are endemic
• American black bear
• Songbirds and other bird species
• Bobcat
• Coyote
• Red fox
• Gray fox
• Grouse
• North American river otter
• Whitetail deer
• Wild boar
• Wild turkey
• Raccoon

Population centers

[edit]

The largest city located in the Blue Ridge Mountains is Roanoke, located in Southwest Virginia, while the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area is the Greenville metropolitan area in Upstate, South Carolina.[12] Other notable cities in the Blue Ridge Mountains include Charlottesville, Frederick, Hagerstown, Chambersburg, Asheville, Johnson City, and Lynchburg.

See also

[edit]

• Appalachian balds
• Appalachian bogs
• Appalachian temperate rainforest
• Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests
• Cove (Appalachian Mountains)
• Blue Ridge National Heritage Area
• List of subranges of the Appalachian Mountains
• Tennessee Frontiers: Three Regions in Transition by John R. Finger
• Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver

References

[edit]

1. ^ "Blue Ridge". U.S. Geological Survey. Archived from the original on December 24, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
2. ^ "Physiographic divisions of the conterminous U. S." U.S. Geological Survey. Archived from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
3. ^ Johnson, A. W. (1998). Invitation To Organic Chemistry. Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 261. ISBN 978-0-7637-0432-2. blue mountains chemical terpene.
4. ^ "Blue Ridge Parkway, Frequently Asked Questions". National Park Service. 2007. Archived from the original on December 28, 2007. Retrieved December 29, 2007.
5. ^ Leighty, Dr. Robert D. (2001). "Blue Ridge Physiographic Province". Contract Report. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOD) Information Sciences Office. Archived from the original on May 21, 2008. Retrieved December 29, 2007.
6. ^ Medina, M.A.; J.C. Reid; R.H. Carpenter (2004). "Physiography of North Carolina" (PDF). North Carolina Geological Survey, Division of Land Resources. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 16, 2007. Retrieved December 29, 2007.
7. ^ "South Beyond 6000". Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved September 19, 2016.
8. ^ Tollo, Richard P.; Aleinkoff, John N.; Borduas, Elizabeth A. (2004). "Petrology and Geochronology of Grenville-Age Magmatism, Blue Ridge Province, Northern Virginia". Northeastern Section (39th Annual) and Southeastern Section (53rd Annual) Joint Meeting. Geological Society of America. Archived from the original on October 22, 2007. Retrieved November 9, 2006.
9. ^ Davis, Donald E.; Colten, Craig E.; Nelson, Megan Kate; Saikku, Mikko; Allen, Barbara L. (2006). Southern United States: An Environmental History. ABC-CLIO. p. 261. ISBN 1-85109-780-5. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
10. ^ "Blue Ridge Mountains". The New Georgia Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on June 17, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
11. ^ Cogbill, Charles V.; White, Peter S.; Wiser, Susan K. (1997). "Predicting Treeline Elevation in the Southern Appalachians". Castanea. 62 (3): 137–146. JSTOR 4033963.
12. ^ "2020 State-based Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas Maps". United States Census Bureau.

Further reading

[edit]

• Olson, Ted (1998). Blue Ridge Folklife, University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-023-0.

External links

[edit]

• Media related to Blue Ridge Mountains at Wikimedia Commons
• Blue Ridge Mountains travel guide from Wikivoyage

v t e Mountains of Georgia
Blue Ridge Mountains	Big Bald Mountain Big John Dick Mountain Black Mountain Black Rock Mountain Blood Mountain Brasstown Bald Coosa Bald Cowrock Mountain Currahee Mountain Dick's Knob Double Spring Knob Flat Top Fort Mountain Glade Mountain Glassy Mountain Grassy Mountain Grassy Ridge Hightower Bald Horsetrough Mountain Jacks Knob Levelland Mountain Mount Oglethorpe Rabun Bald Rich Mountain Slaughter Mountain Springer Mountain Tray Mountain Wildcat Mountain Wolfpen Ridge Young Lick Rich Knob Screamer Mountain Three Sisters Yonah Mountain Rock Mountain Rocky Knob Rocky Mountain
Ridge-and-Valley	Baugh Mountain Blossom Hill Horseleg Mountain Lookout Mountain Lumpkin Hill Johns Mountain Old Shorter Hill Jackson Hill Pigeon Mountain Snodgrass Hill Taylor Ridge Turkey Mountain White Oak Mountain
Others	Alcovy Mountain Arabia Mountain Bear Mountain Blackjack Mountain Chenocetah Mountain Dowdell's Knob Heggie's Rock Kennesaw Mountain Little Kennesaw Mountain Mount Wilkinson Panola Mountain Pine Log Mountain Pine Mountain (Bartow County) Pine Mountain (Cobb County) Pine Mountain Range Sawnee Mountain Stone Mountain Sweat Mountain

v t e Mountains of Maryland
Allegheny Mountains	Backbone Mountain Dans Mountain Haystack Mountain Negro Mountain Roundtop Hill
Blue Ridge Mountains	Catoctin Mountain Elk Ridge Lambs Knoll Quirauk Mountain South Mountain Sugarloaf Mountain
Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians	Big Savage Mountain Breakneck Hill Collier Mountain Evitts Mountain Savage Mountain Tonoloway Ridge Warrior Mountain
Others	Hoye-Crest Martin Mountain Ridge Nicholas Mountain Polish Mountain Town Hill

v t e Mountains of North Carolina
Blue Ridge Mountains	Bald Mountains Big Bald Max Patch Black Mountains Celo Knob Mount Craig Mount Mitchell Brushy Mountains Hibriten Mountain Pores Knob Great Balsam Mountains Black Balsam Knob Chestnut Mountain (Transylvania County) Cold Mountain Richland Balsam Shining Rock Tanasee Bald Great Craggy Mountains Beaucatcher Mountain Great Smoky Mountains Andrews Bald Charlies Bunion Kuwohi Gregory Bald Marks Knob Mount Cammerer Mount Chapman Mount Collins Mount Guyot Mount Hardison Mount Kephart Mount Sequoyah Mount Sterling Old Black Shuckstack Silers Bald Spence Field Thunderhead Mountain Tricorner Knob Plott Balsams Eaglenest Mountain North Eaglenest Mountain Waterrock Knob Unaka Range Big Yellow Mountain Grassy Ridge Bald Little Yellow Mountain Roan Mountain Unicoi Mountains Bob Stratton Bald Haw Knob Hooper Bald Iron Mountains Snake Mountain North Carolina-Tennessee-Virginia Corners Others Adams Mountain Bear's Paw Bee Mountain Beech Mountain Bluerock Mountain Brier Knob Brown Mountain Chestnut Mountain (Caldwell County) Crossing Knob Doe Hill Mountain Elk Knob Fire Scale Mountain Flattop Mountain Grandfather Mountain Grandmother Mountain Howard Knob Humpback Mountain Little Chestnut Mountain Mount Pisgah Peak Mountain Pixie Mountain Rich Mountain, near Boone, Watauga County - 1) Rich Mountain (SSW of Boone) 2) Rich Mountain (NW of Boone) 3) Rich Mountain Bald (NNW of Boone) Sassafras Mountain Spanish Oak Mountain Stone Mountain Sugar Mountain Table Rock Three Top Mountain Tomkins Knob Woody's Knob
Sauratown Mountains	Moore's Knob Pilot Mountain
Uwharrie Mountains	Caraway Mountains Morrow Mountain
Others	Albert Mountain Big Butt Mountain Cane Creek Mountains Crowders Mountain Devil's Courthouse Kings Pinnacle Looking Glass Rock Mayfield Mountain McAlpine Mountain Mount Jefferson Mulatto Mountain Occoneechee Mountain Old Butt Knob South Mountains Standing Indian Mountain Terrells Mountain Wayah Bald Wesser Bald Whiteside Mountain

v t e Mountains of Pennsylvania
Allegheny Mountains	Allegheny Front Allegheny Mountain Bald Eagle Mountain Blue Knob Brush Mountain Herman Point Kinton Knob Laurel Hill Mount Davis Chestnut Ridge Negro Mountain North Mountain Pine Knob Ritchey Knob Schaefer Head Sugarloaf Knob Wills Mountain
Allegheny Plateau	Blue Ridge Mountain Camelback Mountain Elk Hill Endless Mountains Forkston Mountain Miller Mountain Mount Ararat Mount Pisgah (Bradford County) Penobscot Knob Pocono Mountains Red Rock Mountain
Blue Ridge Mountains	South Mountain
Reading Prong	Applebutter Hill Chestnut Hill Christines Hill Focht Hill Hexenkopf Hill Kirchberg Kohlberg Lehigh Mountain Morgan Hill Pektor Hill Saucon Hill South Mountain Swoveberg
Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians	Bake Oven Knob Bald Mountain Bear Mountain Bear Pond Mountains Big Mountain Big Savage Mountain Blue Mountain Clarks Knob Cross Mountain Dunning Mountain Hawk Mountain Martin Hill Mount Minsi Nesquehoning Mountain Parnell Knob The Pinnacle Savage Mountain Sharp Mountain Sideling Hill Tuscarora Mountain Tussey Mountain Williamsburg Mountain
Others	Buck Mountain Buckingham Mountain Butler Knob Catawissa Mountain Central Mountain Conewago Mountains Conococheague Mountain Haycock Mountain Haystack Mountain Jacks Mountain McCauley Mountain Moosic Mountains Mount Nittany Mount Pisgah (Carbon County) Nescopeck Mountain Osterhout Mountain Peters Mountain Pimple Hill Pisgah Mountain Sidneys Knob Turkey Hill Watchung Outliers

v t e Mountains of South Carolina
Blue Ridge Mountains	Pinnacle Mountain Sassafras Mountain Saluda Mountains
Others	Brown's Mountain Caesars Head Glassy Mountain Henry's Knob Joes Mountain Little Mountain Nanny Mountain Thicketty Mountain Whitaker Mountain

v t e Mountains of Tennessee
Blue Ridge Mountains	Bald Mountains Big Bald Max Patch Cohutta Mountains Big Frog Mountain Great Smoky Mountains Anakeesta Knob Bote Mountain Chilhowee Mountain Chimney Tops Kuwohi Coon Butt English Mountain Gregory Bald Mount Cammerer Mount Chapman Mount Collins Mount Guyot Mount Kephart Mount Le Conte Mount Mingus Mount Sequoyah Old Black Silers Bald Spence Field Sugarland Mountain Thunderhead Mountain Tricorner Knob Woolly Tops Mountain Iron Mountains Snake Mountain North Carolina-Tennessee-Virginia Corners Unaka Range Roan Mountain Unicoi Mountains Haw Knob Oswald Dome Starr Mountain Others Little Frog Mountain Holston Mountain
Appalachian Plateau	Cumberland Mountains Crab Orchard Mountains Cross Mountain Frozen Head Lone Mountain Pine Mountain Tri-State Peak Cumberland Plateau Brown Mountain Little Mountain Lookout Mountain Walden Ridge
Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians	Bays Mountain Clinch Mountain Mount Evil House Mountain Powell Mountain White Oak Mountain
Others	Gee Hill Penile Hill

v t e Mountains of Virginia
Allegheny Mountains	Allegheny Mountain Peters Mountain Reddish Knob Shenandoah Mountain
Blue Ridge Mountains	Apple Orchard Mountain Battle Mountain Broken Hills Buck Mountain Bull Run Mountains Catoctin Mountain Elk Pond Mountain Furnace Mountain Hawksbill Mountain High Knob Hogback Mountain Holston Mountain Humpback Rock Knob Mountain Loudoun Heights Maintop Mountain Mary's Rock Mine Bank Mountain Mount Jefferson Mount Rogers Neighbor Mountain Old Rag Mountain Paris Mountain Peaks of Otter Pignut Mountain Poor Mountain The Priest Purcell Knob Ragged Mountains Rocky Mountain Short Hill Mountain Smith Mountain Southwest Mountains Stony Man Mountain Turkeycock Mountain Twelve O'clock Knob Whitetop Mountain
Cumberland Mountains	High Knob Pine Mountain Tri-State Peak
Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians	Beartown Mountain Big Schloss Clinch Mountain Elliott Knob Fort Lewis Mountain Great North Mountain Massanutten Mountain Powell Mountain Salt Pond Mountain Timber Ridge
Others	Camp Rock Carpenter Mountain Cedar Mountain House Mountain Kate's Mountain McAfee Knob Nakedtop Pantops Mountain Roanoke Mountain Short Mountain Signal Knob Willis Mountain

v t e Mountains of West Virginia
Allegheny Mountains	Allegheny Mountain Back Allegheny Mountain Bald Knob Barton Knob Cheat Mountain Droop Mountain Elleber Ridge Gaudineer Knob Knobly Mountain Laurel Mountain Mount Porte Crayon North Fork Mountain North Mountain Peters Mountain River Knobs Reddish Knob Shavers Fork Mountain Complex Shavers Mountain Shenandoah Mountain Sleepy Creek Mountain Snowshoe Mountain Spring Gap Mountain Spruce Knob Spruce Mountain Thorny Flat White Top
Blue Ridge Mountains	Blue Ridge Mountain Raven Rocks
Ridge-and-ValleyAppalachians	Baker Mountain Bear Garden Mountain Big Schloss Cacapon Mountain Castle Mountain (Hampshire County) Castle Mountain (Pendleton County) Cooper Mountain Great North Mountain High Knob Horsepen Mountain Keeney Knob Little Cacapon Mountain Mill Creek Mountain Nathaniel Mountain New Creek Mountain North River Mountain Patterson Creek Mountain Saddle Mountain Schaffenaker Mountain Short Mountain South Branch Mountain Third Hill Mountain
Others	Bickett Knob Bickle Knob Black Mountain Black Rock Buffalo Bull Knob Burner Mountain Caesar Mountain Calders Peak Camp Hill Close Mountain Cottle Knob Day Mountain Dorsey Knob Evick Knob Greenwood Mountain Gregg Knob Gunstock Knob Gwinn Mountain Honsocker Knob Hump Mountain Ice Mountain Limestone Mountain Michael Mountain Paddy Knob Pifer Mountain Pinnickinnick Mountain See All Sewell Mountain Socrates Mountain Tallery Mountain Twin Sugars Ugly Mountain Viney Mountain Weaver Knob

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Harrisburg (capital)
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Annapolis (capital)
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Regions	Allegheny Mountains Atlantic coastal plain Blue Ridge Chesapeake Cumberland Valley Delaware Valley Delmarva Peninsula Eastern Shore Piedmont Ridge and Valley Southern Maryland Tidewater Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area Baltimore metropolitan area Washington metropolitan area Western Maryland
CDPs	Arbutus Arnold Aspen Hill Baltimore Highlands Bethesda Camp Springs Carney Catonsville Chillum Clinton Cockeysville-Hunt Valley Colesville Columbia Crofton Dundalk Edgewood Eldersburg Elkridge Ellicott City Essex Fairland Ferndale Fort Washington Germantown Glen Burnie Green Haven Hillcrest Heights Landover Langley Park Lanham Lansdowne Lochearn Lutherville Middle River Milford Mill Montgomery Village Odenton Olney Owings Mills Oxon Hill Parkville Pasadena Perry Hall Pikesville Potomac Randallstown Redland Reisterstown Rosedale St. Charles Severn Severna Park Silver Spring South Gate Suitland Timonium Towson Urbana Waldorf Wheaton-Glenmont White Oak Woodlawn
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Insignia	Coat of arms Flag Motto Seal
Regions	Allegheny Mountains Allegheny Plateau Blue Ridge Mountains Charleston metropolitan area Cumberland Mountains Cumberland Plateau Eastern Panhandle Huntington metropolitan area North Central Ohio Valley Northern Panhandle Potomac Highlands Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians Shenandoah Valley Southern Washington–Baltimore metropolitan area
Metro areas	Bluefield Charleston Hagerstown–Martinsburg Huntington–Ashland Morgantown Parkersburg–Marietta–Vienna Washington Weirton–Steubenville Wheeling Winchester
Cities with over 15,000 residents	Beckley Charleston Clarksburg Fairmont Huntington Martinsburg Morgantown Parkersburg Weirton Wheeling
Counties	Barbour Berkeley Boone Braxton Brooke Cabell Calhoun Clay Doddridge Fayette Gilmer Grant Greenbrier Hampshire Hancock Hardy Harrison Jackson Jefferson Kanawha Lewis Lincoln Logan Marion Marshall Mason McDowell Mercer Mineral Mingo Monongalia Monroe Morgan Nicholas Ohio Pendleton Pleasants Pocahontas Preston Putnam Raleigh Randolph Ritchie Roane Summers Taylor Tucker Tyler Upshur Wayne Webster Wetzel Wirt Wood Wyoming
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v t e Commonwealth of Virginia
Richmond (capital)
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Culture	Abortion Crime Demographics Economy Education colleges and universities Media newspapers radio TV Politics
Regions	Allegheny Mountains Atlantic Coastal Plain Blue Ridge Chesapeake Bay Cumberland Mountains Delmarva Peninsula Eastern Shore Hampton Roads Middle Peninsula Northern Neck Northern Virginia Piedmont Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians Shenandoah Valley South Hampton Roads Southside Southwest Virginia Tennessee Valley Tidewater Tri-Cities Virginia Peninsula Western Virginia
Metro areas	Blacksburg-Christiansburg Bluefield Bristol Charlottesville Danville Harrisonburg Lynchburg Martinsville Richmond Roanoke Staunton-Waynesboro Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Winchester
Counties	Accomack Albemarle Alleghany Amelia Amherst Appomattox Arlington Augusta Bath Bedford Bland Botetourt Brunswick Buchanan Buckingham Campbell Caroline Carroll Charles City Charlotte Chesterfield Clarke Craig Culpeper Cumberland Dickenson Dinwiddie Essex Fairfax Fauquier Floyd Fluvanna Franklin Frederick Giles Gloucester Goochland Grayson Greene Greensville Halifax Hanover Henrico Henry Highland Isle of Wight James City King and Queen King George King William Lancaster Lee Loudoun Louisa Lunenburg Madison Mathews Mecklenburg Middlesex Montgomery Nelson New Kent Northampton Northumberland Nottoway Orange Page Patrick Pittsylvania Powhatan Prince Edward Prince George Prince William Pulaski Rappahannock Richmond Roanoke Rockbridge Rockingham Russell Scott Shenandoah Smyth Southampton Spotsylvania Stafford Surry Sussex Tazewell Warren Washington Westmoreland Wise Wythe York
Independent cities	Alexandria Bristol Buena Vista Charlottesville Chesapeake Colonial Heights Covington Danville Emporia Fairfax Falls Church Franklin Fredericksburg Galax Hampton Harrisonburg Hopewell Lexington Lynchburg Manassas Manassas Park Martinsville Newport News Norfolk Norton Petersburg Poquoson Portsmouth Radford Richmond Roanoke Salem Staunton Suffolk Virginia Beach Waynesboro Williamsburg Winchester
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v t e State of Tennessee
Nashville (capital)
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Grand Divisions	East Middle West
Regions	Blue Ridge Mountains Cumberland Mountains Cumberland Plateau Great Appalachian Valley Highland Rim Mississippi Alluvial Plain Mississippi embayment Nashville Basin Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians Tennessee Valley Tri-Cities
Metropolitan areas	Chattanooga Clarksville Cleveland Jackson Johnson City Kingsport–Bristol–Bristol Knoxville Memphis Morristown Nashville
Combinedstatistical areas	Chattanooga–Cleveland–Dalton
Micropolitan areas	Cookeville Tullahoma–Manchester Union City
Counties	Anderson Bedford Benton Bledsoe Blount Bradley Campbell Cannon Carroll Carter Cheatham Chester Claiborne Clay Cocke Coffee Crockett Cumberland Davidson Decatur DeKalb Dickson Dyer Fayette Fentress Franklin Gibson Giles Grainger Greene Grundy Hamblen Hamilton Hancock Hardeman Hardin Hawkins Haywood Henderson Henry Hickman Houston Humphreys Jackson Jefferson Johnson Knox Lake Lauderdale Lawrence Lewis Lincoln Loudon Macon Madison Marion Marshall Maury McMinn McNairy Meigs Monroe Montgomery Moore Morgan Obion Overton Perry Pickett Polk Putnam Rhea Roane Robertson Rutherford Scott Sequatchie Sevier Shelby Smith Stewart Sullivan Sumner Tipton Trousdale Unicoi Union Van Buren Warren Washington Wayne Weakley White Williamson Wilson
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v t e State of North Carolina
Raleigh (capital)
Topics	Index Climate Geography lakes reserviors rivers state parks wildlife History colonial era American Revolution War of 1812 Civil War Mass media newspapers radio TV North Carolinians Politics government law Settlements Symbols Tourist attractions
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Regions	Western Foothills High Country Piedmont Metrolina (Charlotte) Piedmont Triad Triangle Eastern Sandhills Cape Fear Crystal Coast Inner Banks Outer Banks
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v t e State of South Carolina
Columbia (capital)
Regions	Atlantic Coastal Plain Blue Ridge Mountains Grand Strand High Hills of Santee Lake Murray Country Lowcountry Metrolina Midlands Ninety-Six District Olde English District Pee Dee Piedmont Sandhills Sea Islands Upstate
Counties	Abbeville Aiken Allendale Anderson Bamberg Barnwell Beaufort Berkeley Calhoun Charleston Cherokee Chester Chesterfield Clarendon Colleton Darlington Dillon Dorchester Edgefield Fairfield Florence Georgetown Greenville Greenwood Hampton Horry Jasper Kershaw Lancaster Laurens Lee Lexington Marion Marlboro McCormick Newberry Oconee Orangeburg Pickens Richland Saluda Spartanburg Sumter Union Williamsburg York
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v t e State of Georgia
Atlanta (capital)
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