804 Area Code 🌍☎️

Richmond is the capital of Virginia, incorporated in 1742 and an independent city since 1871, with a population of 226,610 at the 2020 census and a metropolitan area of over 1.37 million residents. Located at the James River's fall line 92 miles south of Washington, D.C., and positioned at the intersection of I-95 and I-64, Richmond replaced Williamsburg as Virginia's capital in 1780 and served as the capital of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. The city is historically significant for Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech in 1775 and the passage of Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, while the Jackson Ward neighborhood earned renown as the "Black Wall Street of America" and "Harlem of the South." Richmond's economy is primarily driven by law, finance, and government, including a U.S. Court of Appeals and Federal Reserve Bank, along with major corporations such as Altria, CarMax, Dominion Energy, and Performance Food Group in the metropolitan area. The city pioneered one of the world's first successful electric streetcar systems at the beginning of the 20th century. Henrico is a U.S. Postal Service designation covering unincorporated areas of Henrico County, Virginia, surrounding Richmond. The USPS recognizes Richmond, Highland Springs, Regency, and Ridge as alternative city names for portions of Henrico, while Millers, Montrose, Montrose Heights, Staples Mill, Tuckahoe, Varina, and Westbury are deprecated alternate names. The region is home to the Curles Neck Farm, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia located 21 miles south of Richmond at the fall line of the Appomattox River, with a 2020 population of 33,458. Founded in 1748 from three merged settlements and rebuilt after an 1815 fire, Petersburg became a major transportation and industrial hub in the 19th century, serving as the terminus of the Upper Appomattox Canal Navigation System (opened 1816) and four railroads built before the Civil War, making it Virginia's second-largest city by 1860. The city was devastated during the 1864-65 Siege of Petersburg - a nine-month campaign critical to Union strategy - with battlefield sites now preserved as Petersburg National Battlefield. Petersburg is home to some of the oldest free black settlements in Virginia at Pocahontas Island and hosted founding congregations of two Baptist churches established in the late 18th century that became leaders in the 1950s-60s Civil Rights Movement. Today, the city remains a transportation hub served by Interstates 85 and 95, CSX and Norfolk Southern railways, and Amtrak, with heritage tourism and federal employment at nearby Fort Lee driving its economy.