I lived in Virginia for over 25 years and I got less. Fairfax, Manassas, Vienna, Annandale, Springfield, Woodbridge, Fredericksburg.. all bigger than many of these places but however it's calculated makes it a bit hard to guess.
I am utterly confused by this quiz. And I currently live in Virginia (albeit temporarily, and under duress). What exactly is the thinking behind *not* counting unincorporated places, if they are Census-Designated?
Because the Census will often take some nameless tract of suburb sprawl and give it a name that very few people ever use or recognize. Trust me when I say that having CDPs on these quizzes is VERY unpopular.
To further complicate things (read earlier comments), Arlington has an unusual status - it's not a city, but rather a "fully urbanized" county. Note that it's the smallest area "self-governing county" in the US.
I visited a friend at Virginia Tech. Both Blacksburg and nearby Christiansburg seemed like really small towns. Feels like many of the cities in NoVA should be larger.
Regarding Northern Virginia, Leesburg (a town), Alexandria, Manassas, and Fredericksburg are all on here. Fairfax City is only 6 square miles, Falls Church is 2.1 square miles, and Manassas Park is only 2.5 square miles. The independent towns that do exist in Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William similarly have small areas (looking it up - Herndon and Vienna are both less than 5 square miles, Dumfries is 1.5 square miles, Purcellville is 3.5 square miles, etc.) There isn't enough area in these cities/towns to have a big population.
There are too many names for the norfolk/ VA beach/ hampton roads area. Also, it saddens me that Leesburg is the least guessed, especially as a Loudoun native.
18 of the answers are independent cities, which are county equivalents. Two of the answers are towns: Leesburg, in Loudoun County, and Blacksburg, in Montgomery County. The next answers that would be included using the existing criteria are the cities of Staunton, Salem, and Fairfax and the town of Herndon, all of which have between 26,000 and 24,000 people. Frankly, there is no better way to design a quiz on this subject than the way that this one is designed. 5 stars from me.
Well, Virginia is obviously not my strong suit. Looking at the answers, what stands out to me is all the first names: Frederick, Dan, Peter, Alexandria, Charlotte, Lee, Rich, even Harrison. Maybe that will help me remember next time.
it's definitely incorrect of the description to call Arlington "unincorporated"--the Virginia system at the STATE level is just atypical. you can't have a "city" within a county, so any stand-alone "city" becomes its own city-county mix, like San Francisco. Alexandria is the same way so I feel like the quiz should reflect that even though it's totally weird
Fairfax (City) - just misses with 24.8k
Manassas (City) - on the quiz
Vienna (Town) - only 16.4k
Annandale - not a city or town
Springfield - not a city or town
Woodbridge - not a city or town
Fredericksburg (City) - on the quiz
There, got that off my hairy chest.
Some German and French influence perhaps?