Leesburg, Virginia, United States

🇺🇸 Leesburg is the county seat of Loudoun County, Virginia. It was built in 1740 and is named for the Lee family, early leaders of the town and ancestors of Robert E. Lee. In the War of 1812, it was a refuge for important federal documents evacuated from Washington, DC, and in the Civil War, it changed hands several times.

The town is situated at the base of Catoctin Mountain and adjacent to the Potomac River, 33 miles (53 km) north-west of Washington, D.C., for which it has largely become a commuter suburb. It is Virginia's largest incorporated town within a county (rather than being an independent city).

Leesburg is 33 miles (53 km) west-northwest of Washington, D.C., along the base of Catoctin Mountain and close to the Potomac River. The town is the north-western terminus of the Dulles Greenway, a private toll road that connects to the Dulles Toll Road at Washington Dulles International Airport.

Leesburg, like the rest of Loudoun County, has undergone considerable growth and development over the last 30 years, transforming from a small, rural, Piedmont town to a suburban bedroom community for commuters to the national capital. Growth in the town and its immediate area to the east (Lansdowne/Ashburn) concentrates along the Dulles Greenway and State Route 7, which roughly parallels the Potomac River between Winchester to the west and Alexandria to the east.

The Federal Aviation Administration's Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center is in Leesburg.

Prior to European settlement, the area around Leesburg was occupied by various Native American tribes. John Lederer (1670) testified that the entire Piedmont region had once been occupied by the "Tacci, alias Dogi", but that the Siouan tribes, driven from the north-west, had occupied it for 400 years. In 1699, the Algonquian Piscataway (Conoy) moved to an island in the Potomac in the environs of Leesburg, and were there when the first known Europeans visited what is now Loudoun County.

Transportation The primary highways serving Leesburg include U.S. Route 15, Virginia State Route 7 and Virginia State Route 267.

US 15 enters Leesburg from the south-west, following King Street, then joins the Leesburg Bypass to pass south-east of downtown. It rejoins King Street as it leaves the bypass on the north-east end of town on its way toward Maryland. The old alignment of US 15 is now U.S. Route 15 Business. Via US 15, travelers can reach Warrenton 34 miles (55 km) to the south-west and Frederick, Maryland, 25 miles (40 km) to the northeast.

SR 7 enters Leesburg from the west along Market Street and immediately joins the Leesburg Bypass to pass south-west of downtown. It rejoins Market Street as it leaves the bypass south-east of downtown. The old alignment of SR 7 is now Virginia State Route 7 Business. SR 7 37 miles (60 km) west to Winchester and 35 miles (56 km) south-east to Alexandria. SR 267 enters Leesburg from the south along the Dulles Greenway and terminates at the Leesburg Bypass (US 15 and SR 7). SR 267 functions as a high speed bypass of SR 7 south-east of Leesburg, but is also a toll road.

Loudoun County Transit provides public transportation services in Leesburg.

Business and industry Leesburg operates the Leesburg Executive Airport at Godfrey Field, which serves Loudoun County with private and corporate aircraft operations. A designated reliever airport for Dulles International, the airport accounts for nearly $78 million per year in economic impact according to a 2011 study by the Virginia Department of Aviation. It is home (as of 2005) to over 240 aircraft, and hosts 20–30 jet operations per day. The airport was built in 1963 to replace the original Leesburg airport, which Arthur Godfrey owned and referred to affectionately as "The Old Cow Pasture" on his radio show. Godfrey, who, by the early 1950s, had purchased the Beacon Hill Estate west of Leesburg, used a DC-3 to commute from his farm to studios in New York City every Sunday night during the 1950s and 1960s. His DC-3 was so powerful and noisy that Godfrey built a new airport, funding it through the sale of the old field. Originally named Godfrey Field, it is now known as Leesburg Executive Airport at Godfrey Field.

Also located near Leesburg is the National Conference Center, which the Xerox Corporation built in the 1970s. Government entities and private business use the Conference Center for meetings and conferences. Three main focal points connect this maze of underground buildings, one of which is currently the headquarters of Civilian Police International, a government sub-contract company.

Market Station, located in the south-east portion of Leesburg's Historic District, contains a number of high-tech and legal offices, retail shops, and restaurants that are housed within seven restored historic buildings (a railroad freight station, a railroad stationmaster's house, a log house, two barns and two gristmills, some of which were reconstructed in or relocated to the site. A plaza on the east side of the site contains several structures painted in the yellow and green colours of the stations of the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad, which served the town until 1968.

Iridium Communications Inc. (formerly Iridium Satellite LLC) system of satellites is "guided from the basement of a featureless two-story office building" located in Leesburg.

Top employers According to Leesburg's FY 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the town are: 1 Loudoun County; 2 Loudoun County Public Schools; 3 Federal Aviation Administration; 4 Town of Leesburg; 5 Wegmans Food Markets; 6 K2M 250-500 7 Commonwealth of Virginia; 8 Target; 9 Walmart; 10 Costco.