Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area

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The Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area is a consolidated metropolitan area consisting of the overlapping labor market region of the cities of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. The region includes Northern Virginia, Central Maryland, and two counties in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

Officially, the area is designated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as the Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV Combined Statistical Area (CSA). The CSA is composed primarily of two major metropolitan areas, the Baltimore-Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA. In addition, three other smaller urban areas not contiguous to the main urban area but having strong commuting ties with the main area are also included in the metropolitan area. These are the Winchester, VA-WV MSA, the Lexington Park, MD Micropolitan area and the Culpeper, VA Micropolitan area. Some counties and cities are not officially designated by the OMB as members of this metropolitan area, but still consider themselves members anyway. This is mostly due to their proximity to the area, the size of their commuter population, and by the influence of local broadcasting stations. The population of the entire Baltimore-Washington Metroplex as of 2006 is 8,207,040^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}. The most populated city is Baltimore, with a population of a little more than 630,000. The most populated county is Fairfax County, at slightly more than 1 million. This is the only metropolitan area in the country in which the largest central city, Baltimore, comes second in the name.

Components of the metropolitan area

The counties and independent cities and their groupings that comprise the metropolitan area are listed below with 2004 Census Bureau estimates of their populations.

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA (5,286,227)

Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, MD Metropolitan Division (1,287,005)

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division (4,131,158)

Baltimore-Towson, MD MSA (2,658,405)

Main Article: Baltimore Metropolitan Area

Winchester, VA-WV MSA (118,932)

Lexington Park, MD Micropolitan Area (98,854)

Saint Mary's County

Culpeper, VA Micropolitan Area (44,622)

Culpeper County

List of cities

See List of cities in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area for a full list.

Washington area

Baltimore area

Economy

Local industries

Biotechnology industry

Not limited to its proximity to the National Institutes of Health, Maryland's Washington suburbs are a major center for biotechnology. Prominent local biotech companies include MedImmune, Celera Genomics, The Institute for Genomic Research, Human Genome Sciences and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Defense contracting

Many defense contractors are located in Northern Virginia to be close to the Pentagon in Arlington. Local defense contractors include Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and Orbital Sciences Corporation.

IT industry

In 1993, Fortune magazine named Northern Virginia the "Netplex" referring to the area's concentration of network technology companies and infrastructure. The region is home to the Internet Society and formerly the mainframe that contained the master list of all Internet domains.

Notable company headquarters in the region

(Numbers denote Fortune 500 company ranking.)

Transportation

Major airports

Washington Dulles International Airport (Chantilly, Virginia - busiest in region)
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (Arlington County, Virginia - closest to Washington)
Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (Anne Arundel County, Maryland - closest to Baltimore)

Rail transit systems

Major highways

Interstate 270
Interstate 370
Interstate 70
Interstate 66
Interstate 83
Interstate 95
Interstate 81
Interstate 195
Interstate 295
Interstate 395 (District of Columbia-Virginia)
Interstate 395 (Maryland)
Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway)
Interstate 695 (Baltimore Beltway)
Interstate 795
Interstate 895
Interstate 97
U.S. Route 1
U.S. Route 50
U.S. Route 29
U.S. Route 15
U.S. Route 11
U.S. Route 340
U.S. Route 40
Virginia Route 267
Virginia Route 28
Virginia Route 7
Virginia Route 9
Maryland Route 2
Maryland Route 4
Maryland Route 26
Maryland Route 32
Maryland Route 100
Baltimore-Washington Parkway/Maryland Route 295
Maryland Route 355
West Virginia Route 9