What is the capital of Virginia?

Richmond is the capital of Virginia, located on the James River at the head of navigation in central Virginia, about 100 miles south of Washington, D.C. and 75 miles west of Williamsburg. Richmond has been the state capital since 1780, when the General Assembly moved the capital from Williamsburg to a more central and defensible location during the Revolutionary War. Patrick Henry argued for the move, and Richmond was selected on May 1, 1779.

Virginia was the most populous of the 13 original colonies and the 10th state, ratifying the Constitution on June 25, 1788 after intense debate. The Virginia State Capitol building, completed in 1788, was designed by Thomas Jefferson based on the Maison Carree, a Roman temple in Nimes, France. Jefferson's design introduced classical architecture to American public buildings and influenced state capitols and federal buildings across the country.

Richmond was the second capital of the Confederate States of America from May 29, 1861 to April 2, 1865 (Montgomery, Alabama had been the first capital from February 4 to May 1861). Richmond was the political and industrial center of the Confederacy, including the Tredegar Iron Works that produced cannons and the Confederate White House at 12th and Clay Streets where Confederate President Jefferson Davis lived. Richmond was a major target of Union strategy throughout the war.

General Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign of May to June 1864 and the Petersburg-Richmond Campaign of June 1864 to April 1865 finally captured the city. As Confederate forces evacuated on April 2 to 3, 1865, retreating soldiers set fires that destroyed much of central Richmond. President Lincoln visited the captured city on April 4, 1865 and walked through downtown to the Confederate White House.

After the Civil War, Richmond was the capital of the Reconstruction-era state government and the Fifth Military District. Today Richmond's population is about 226,000, with a metropolitan area of about 1.3 million people. The economy is dominated by state government, finance (Capital One, Federal Reserve Bank), tobacco (Altria, formerly Philip Morris USA), and law.

Major universities include Virginia Commonwealth University (about 28,000 students), the University of Richmond (about 4,000 students), and Virginia Union University (a historically Black university). Richmond's modern history has wrestled with Confederate memory. Monument Avenue's statues of Confederate generals were removed between 2020 and 2021 following protests after the murder of George Floyd. The American Civil War Museum at the former Tredegar site opened in 2019, integrating multiple perspectives on the war.