Formed June 19, 1742 (31st county)
Fairfax County (1,150,305), Fairfax (24,148), Herndon (24,646)
The Modern courthouse was constructed in 1982. There was an 1800 structure before. The courthouse is on Chain Bridge Road at Judicial Drive. Virginia State Highway 123 is Chain Bridge Road in the town. Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum provided the designs. The building was enlarged in 2007. Many of the Virginia counties have their county seat at a location named after the county followed by the words Court House. Some counties maintain this in their official name. The county was organized on June 19, 1742 from Prince William County as the 31st county. Springfield (1742), Arlington (1752), and Fairfax (1799) have all served as the county seat. The county and its county seat are named for Lord Fairfax of Cameron. He is also the namesake for the City of Fairfax. Fairfax County is the birthplace to 1 Virginia Governor, Fitzhugh Lee.
The area of the county is 396 square miles. It is 47 out of 133 in the state. It ranks 1 out of 133 in population in the state. It has a density of 2904.8 persons per square mile making it 13 out of 133 in the state. Fairfax County has 3.6% of its population in its incorporated areas. Interstate Highway 66 passes east to west through the county from Arlington County to Prince William County. Interstate Highway 95 comes from the City of Alexandria, east, and goes to Prince William County, south. United States Highway 1 parallels Interstate Highway 95 from Alexandria City to Prince William County. United States Highway 29 parallels Interstate Highway 66 from the City of Falls Church to Prince William County. United States Highway 50 comes from Falls Church City, east, and goes to Loudoun County, northwest. George Washington, 1st President, is buried in this county. The county looks like a fan facing east with the center folds eaten away. The City of Fairfax is located near the center of the county although not technically in the county. Herndon is on the northeast border of the county. Fairfax is the county seat and Herndon is the largest city. Herndon is 2.2% of the county population.
Fairfax County government consists of a sheriff and 10 Supervisors. Fourteen Circuit Court Judges and Eighteen District Court Judges serve Fairfax County and Fairfax and Falls Church cities and Fifty-nine Magistrate Court Judges serve Fairfax, Arlington, and Prince William counties and Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park cities. The county is located in the northeast corner of the state on the border with Maryland. Alexandria, Virginia is directly east and Richmond, Virginia is south of the county. The county center is 3.9 miles Northeast of Fairfax nearer Fairlee. The county is surrounded clockwise by Maryland and the District of Columbia and Arlington County and Falls Church and Alexandria cities and Prince William and Loudoun counties and surrounds the City of Fairfax. This county is in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Clifton
Herndon
Vienna
Fairfax (county seat)
