RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Fairfax County >> Virginia Hills >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Virginia Hills, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Virginia Hills and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Virginia Hills:
    • 38.778725, -77.099423
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Virginia Hills
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Fairfax County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Fairfax County
    • Since Virginia Hills is near Alexandria City and also Arlington County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Alexandria City
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Arlington County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Virginia Hills

Communities Also Named Virginia Hills ...

We found four communities that are also named Virginia Hills.

There are four communities within Virginia that are also named Virginia Hills.

Beyond Virginia.

  • Communities Located In Virginia ...
    • Bristol City
      • This Virginia Hills is located in Bristol City and lies 312 miles [502.1 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Virginia Hills that is located in Fairfax County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bristol City community of Virginia Hills.
    • Danville City
      • This Virginia Hills is located in Danville City and lies 194 miles [312.2 km]<1> to the southwest of the Virginia Hills that is located in Fairfax County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Danville City community of Virginia Hills.
    • Dinwiddie County
      • This Virginia Hills is located in Dinwiddie County and lies 114 miles [183.5 km]<1> to the south of the Virginia Hills that is located in Fairfax County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dinwiddie County community of Virginia Hills.
    • Washington County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Virginia community of Virginia Hills [Washington County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Virginia Hills ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Cannon
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Cannon is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cannon
  • Chapel Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Chapel Hill is located in Alexandria City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapel Hill
  • Clover
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Clover is located in Alexandria City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clover
  • College Park
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • College Park is located in Alexandria City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for College Park
  • Delta
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Delta is located in Alexandria City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delta
  • Duke Gardens
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Duke Gardens is located in Alexandria City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duke Gardens
  • Fair Haven
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Fair Haven is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fair Haven
  • Governors Grove
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Governors Grove is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Governors Grove
  • Gum Springs
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Gum Springs is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gum Springs
  • Hayfield
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Hayfield is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hayfield
  • Marlin Forest
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Marlin Forest is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marlin Forest
  • Memorial Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Memorial Heights is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Memorial Heights
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • Ridgeview
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Ridgeview is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ridgeview
    • Rose Hill
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Rose Hill is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rose Hill
    • Seminary Valley
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Seminary Valley is located in Alexandria City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seminary Valley
    • Silver Springs
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Silver Springs is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Springs
    • Spring Bank
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Spring Bank is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Bank

How Far From Virginia Hills to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Virginia Hills to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Virginia Hills and extending to:

  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 87 miles [140 km]<1> to the south southwest (SSW). If you could drive a straight line from Virginia Hills to Richmond, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is just to the north northeast (NNE).
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,905 miles [9,503.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,610 miles [10,637.8 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,487 miles [7,221.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Virginia Hills) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Virginia Hills could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<3>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<4>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Virginia Hills to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Virginia Hills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.7787, Longitude: -77.0994       In this case, the coordinates for Virginia Hills have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.934 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.471 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.786 degrees.