Herndon

Herndon is an incorporated town in Fairfax County, Virginia, in the northern part of the state and within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The 2020 census counted 24,655 residents, making it the largest of the three incorporated towns in the county, and the town covers about 10.9 square kilometres. A settlement here was named Herndon in 1858 after Commander William Lewis Herndon, a naval explorer who went down with the steamer Central America while helping to save more than 150 passengers and crew. Northern families settled the area in the 1870s, and the town grew as a dairy farming centre and a vacation spot on the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad, later the Washington and Old Dominion line. That railroad is now a hike-and-bike trail, and the old station serves as a museum and visitors center beside a preserved caboose. The Herndon Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the town marked its 125th anniversary in 2004.