Falls Church, VA

Falls Church is an independent Northern Virginia city separate from surrounding Arlington and Fairfax counties, with its own municipal government and school system. It lies about six miles from Washington, D.C., and had 14,658 residents across roughly two square miles of land in 2020. The community developed around The Falls Church, an Episcopal congregation founded in 1734, became a town in 1875, and gained independent-city status in 1948 after its population passed 5,000. The school system became independent the following year and voluntarily integrated all its schools in 1961. Fort Taylor Park preserves a Civil War site associated with the first military ascent of Thaddeus Lowe’s observation balloon in 1861.