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Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States of America. Like all Virginia municipalities incorporated as cities, it is an independent city, not part of any county (Richmond County is unrelated, and located more than 53 miles (85 kilometers) distant in a different region of the state). Richmond is located on the fall line of the James River in the Piedmont region of Virginia and is at the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and the Greater Richmond Area.

The Greater Richmond area was named the third best city for business by MarketWatch in September of 2007; ranking only behind the Minneapolis and Denver areas and just above Boston. The area is home to nine Fortune 500 companies, including electric utility Dominion Resources; consumer electronics retailer Circuit City, which also spun off the used car retailer CarMax, now a separate Fortune 500 company; Performance Food Group; LandAmerica Financial Group; Owens & Minor; Brink's Company, a security services outfit; Genworth Financial, the former insurance arm of GE and the recently relocated MeadWestvaco, a leading global producer of packaging, coated and specialty papers, consumer and office products and specialty chemicals.

Richmond has the most Fortune 500 headquarters of any city in Virginia and only five metro areas in the country have more Fortune 500 company headquarters than the Richmond area. In addition to the nine Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the Richmond area, four Fortune 1000 companies also have their headquarters located in the area.

Other Fortune 500 companies, while not headquartered in the area, do have a major presence here. These include Wachovia Securities headquarters (a subsidiary of Charlotte-based Wachovia Corporation), SunTrust Banks Incorporated (based in Atlanta), credit card agency Capital One Financial Corporation (officially based in McLean, Virginia, but founded in Richmond with its operations center and most employees in the Richmond area), the medical and pharmaceutical giant, McKesson (based in San Francisco). Philip Morris USA (a division of Altria Group), one of the world's largest tobacco companies, maintains their corporate headquarters in Henrico County just outside the city, and has several other facilities in the area. Universal Corporation, also in the tobacco industry, has its corporate headquarters here as well. Capital One and Phillip Morris USA are two of the largest private Richmond-area employers. In 2007, Altria announced its plans to move the corporate HQ from New York City to Richmond in 2008, adding another Fortune 500 corporation to Richmond's list.

There are also several schools of higher education, including the University of Richmond (private), Virginia Commonwealth University (public), Virginia Union University (private) and the Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education (private). Several community colleges are found in the metro area, including J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College and John Tyler Community College.

Virginia State University is located about 20 miles south of Richmond, in the suburb of Ettrick, just outside Petersburg. Randolph-Macon College is located about 15 miles north of Richmond, in the incorporated town of Ashland.

Richmond has a significant art community, and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts is consistently ranked as one of the best in the nation. In addition to many art venues associated with the university, there are also several attractions nearby, including the Library of Virginia, the Valentine Richmond History Center, the Virginia Historical Society, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Richmond Symphony, and the Richmond Ballet. The Byrd Theatre in Carytown is a classical movie theater from the 1920s era that still features second-run movies on a regular basis, and is popular among the college student population, particularly because of its low ticket price of $1.99.

The Science Museum of Virginia, is also located on Broad Street near the Fan district. It is housed in the neoclassical Union Station, designed by Beaux-Arts-trained John Russell Pope in 1919. Adjacent to the Science Museum is the Richmond Children's Museum, a fun-filled museum with many hands-on activities.

As the former Capital of the Confederate States of America, Richmond is home to many museums and battlefields of the American Civil War. The Museum of the Confederacy, located near the Virginia State Capitol and the MCV Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, is in Court End along with the Davis Mansion, also known as the White House of the Confederacy; both today feature a wide variety of objects and material from the era. Near the riverfront is the Tredegar Iron Works and Civil War Battlefields National Park Visitors Center. There is a former slave trail along the river as well. The dome-like structure to commemorate the Centennial Exhibition of the American Civil War now serves as a cafeteria on the MCV Campus of VCU. The National Park Service's Richmond Civil War Visitor Center, in the Tredegar Iron Works, has three floors of exhibits and artifacts, films, a bookstore, picnic areas and more.

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