Raleigh is the capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeast, the 41st-most populous city in the U.S., and the largest city of the Research Triangle metro area. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees, which line the streets in the heart of the city. The city covers a land area of 148.54 square miles (384.7 km2). The U.S. Census Bureau counted the city's population as 467,665 at the 2020 census. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. It is ranked as a sufficiency-level world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The city of Raleigh is named after Sir Walter Raleigh, who established the now-lost Roanoke Colony in present-day Dare County.
Wake County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,129,410, making it North Carolina's most populous county. From July 2005 to July 2006, Wake County was the 9th-fastest growing county in the United States, with Cary and Raleigh being the 8th- and 15th-fastest growing communities, respectively.
Alleghany County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,888. Its county seat is Sparta.
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 census, Durham is the fourth-most populous city in North Carolina and the 70th-most populous city in the United States. The city is located in the east-central part of the Piedmont region along the Eno River. Durham is the core of the four-county Durham–Chapel Hill metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 608,879 in 2023. The Office of Management and Budget also includes Durham as a part of the Raleigh–Durham–Cary, NC Combined Statistical Area, commonly known as the Research Triangle, which had an estimated population of 2,368,947 in 2023.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is the longest linear park in the U.S., runs for 469 miles (755 km) through 29 counties in Virginia and North Carolina, linking Shenandoah National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It runs mostly along the spine of the Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. Its southern terminus is at U.S. Route 441 (US 441) on the boundary between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, from which it travels north to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. The roadway continues through Shenandoah as Skyline Drive, a similar scenic road which is managed by a different National Park Service unit. Both Skyline Drive and the Virginia portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway are part of Virginia State Route 48 (SR 48), though this designation is not signed.
The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Anchored by the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill, the region is home to three major research universities: North Carolina State University, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, respectively. The "Triangle" name originated in the 1950s with the creation of Research Triangle Park located between the three anchor cities, which is the largest research park in the United States and home to numerous high tech companies.
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. The province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. To the west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range.
The Yadkin River is one of the longest rivers in the US state of North Carolina, flowing 215 miles (346 km). It rises in the northwestern portion of the state near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Thunder Hill Overlook. Several parts of the river are impounded by dams for water, power, and flood control. The river becomes the Pee Dee River at the confluence of the Uwharrie River south of the community of Badin and east of the town of Albemarle. The river then flows into South Carolina near Cheraw, which is at the Fall Line. The entirety of the Yadkin River and the Great Pee Dee River is part of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin.
Eno River State Park is a 4,319-acre (17.48 km2) North Carolina state park in Durham and Orange Counties, North Carolina. Together with the adjoining West Point on the Eno city park, the two parks preserve over 14 miles (22.5 km) of the Eno River and surrounding lands.
The Roanoke River runs 410 miles (660 km) long through southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains southeast across the Piedmont to Albemarle Sound. An important river throughout the history of the United States, it was the site of early settlement in the Virginia Colony and the Carolina Colony. An 81-mile (130 km) section of its lower course in Virginia between the Leesville Lake and Kerr Lake is known as the Staunton River, pronounced, as is the Shenandoah Valley city of that name. It is impounded along much of its middle course to form a chain of reservoirs.
The Clinchfield Railroad was an operating and holding company for the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway. The line ran from the coalfields of Virginia and Elkhorn City, Kentucky, to the textile mills of South Carolina. The 35-mile segment from Dante, Virginia, to Elkhorn City, opening up the coal lands north of Sandy Ridge Mountains and forming a connection with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway at Elkhorn City, was completed in 1915.
Interstate 540 (I-540) and North Carolina Highway 540 (NC 540) are part of a partially completed beltway around the city of Raleigh in the US state of North Carolina, forming the Raleigh Outer Loop. When complete, the route will completely encircle the city, meeting its parent route of I-40 in two locations.
The Norfolk Southern Railway was the final name of a railroad that ran from Norfolk, Virginia, southwest and west to Charlotte, North Carolina. It was acquired by the Southern Railway in 1974, which merged with the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1982 to form the current Norfolk Southern Railway.
North Carolina Highway 54 (NC 54) is a 55.0-mile-long (88.5 km) primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The highway serves the Research Triangle area, between Burlington and Raleigh, connecting the cities and towns of Chapel Hill, Durham, Morrisville and Cary. The highway also links the campuses of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.
Interstate 40 (I-40) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that travels 2,556.61 miles (4,114.46 km) from Barstow, California, to Wilmington, North Carolina. In North Carolina, I-40 travels 420.21 miles (676.26 km) across the entirety of the state from the Tennessee state line along the Pigeon River Gorge to U.S. Highway 117 (US 117) and North Carolina Highway 132 (NC 132) in Wilmington. I-40 is the longest Interstate Highway in North Carolina and is the only Interstate to completely span the state from west to east.
Hope Valley was the first full-fledged country club community in the suburbs of Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. It is developed around an 18-hole Donald Ross golf course. Created in 1925-26 just before the stock market crash of 1929, Hope Valley remained a unique rural colony until after World War II. Well outside the city limits Hope Valley was situated between Durham and Chapel Hill, and their university campuses, Duke and UNC Chapel Hill. It was one of North Carolina's first suburbs designed to be completely serviced by the automobile, well beyond urban transportation routes. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009 as the Hope Valley Historic District, a national historic district.
Jack Betts was a journalist and columnist for the Charlotte Observer, where he retired as the Associate Editor in 2011. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina and wrote primarily on topics related to North Carolina government and politics. Betts and his wife Martha live near Dan, Virginia.
McDonough Bolyard Peck, Inc. (MBP) is a construction management company headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. It provides construction management services such as cost estimating, value engineering, constructability review, CPM scheduling, inspection, building information modeling, and facilities management. The firm is also active in many forms of Alternative Disputes Resolution (ADR). The firm serves private and governmental owners, designers, contractors, developers and attorneys on a wide range of transportation, building, plant, environmental and utilities projects.
Margaret Nygard was a British-American environmentalist and conservationist. Born in British India to a civil servant, she was educated in both India and Britain. During the 1940 and 1941 bombing campaign against Britain, her school was relocated to British Columbia, Canada. Nygard studied English at the University of British Columbia and after her graduation in 1944 briefly became a teacher at the university. She went on to earn a master's degree and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1962, she and her family moved to Durham, North Carolina, and became aware of environmental threats to the Eno River. She founded the Eno River Association in 1965, becoming its first president. She naturalised as a United States citizen in 1993.
