Five Things You Must Do While You Are in Falls Church

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Falls Church (population 10,400), in northern Virginia, is part of the surrounding Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The Colonial city was founded in 1699, and the community grew up around the Falls Church, which was founded in 1734. Its congregation included the first U.S. president, George Washington.

1. Tour the Colonial City.     Walk through history in an authentic Colonial city. On foot, you can see the Joseph Edward Birch House, built in 1840; Cherry Hill (aka the John Mills Farm), 1845; the original Falls Church, 1734; two federal district boundary markers from 1791; and Mount Hope, 1790s.

2. Check out the gorgeous Virginia Tech Campus.    Get a graduate degree at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. This Virginia Tech campus offers more than 45 graduate degree and certificate programs taught by internationally recognized faculty. The university's teaching location at the Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church is easily accessible by the Metro railway. It offers master's and doctoral degrees and certificate programs.

3. The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park.    Hike along a historic inland waterway. The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park is 184.5 miles long, with six visitors centers, including one that is a short drive from Falls Church. The C&O Canal was a lifeline for communities and businesses along the Potomac River as coal, lumber, grain, and other agricultural products floated down to market. Now, visitors can stroll or bike its banks to take a canal boat ride, birdwatch, backpack, fish, boat, camp, or cross-country ski. As part of the Meet the Mules program, kids can meet and pet a stable of the ancestors of animals that originally pulled the canal boats.

4.City Parks.     Relax in one of the greenest cities in the United States. Falls Church maintains 11 parks within its 2.2-square-mile borders. Named an All-America City in 1962, it has also earned the Tree City USA award for 17 consecutive years from the National Arbor Day Foundation. One popular venue, Cherry Hill Farmhouse, with its adjoining barn and park, hosts historical re-enactments, concerts, readings, lectures, and teas with costumed docents.

5. Check out the Nation's Capitol.   Hop on the Metro to see the nation’s capital city. Washington, D.C, is just six miles by rail from Falls Church. It’s an easy transfer to the stops servicing The Mall, site of the vast complex of Smithsonian Institute’s museums; or the Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln monuments.