Our Vision: Arlington will be a diverse and inclusive world-class urban community with secure, attractive residential and commercial neighborhoods where people unite to form a caring, learning, participating, sustainable community in which each person is important. Arlington is an urban county of about 26 square miles located directly across the Potomac River from Washington DC. No incorporated towns or cities lie within Arlington’s boundaries. Originally part of the area surveyed for the nation’s capital, the portion of the District on the west bank of the Potomac River was returned to the Commonwealth of Virginia by the U.S. Congress in 1846. This area was known as Alexandria City and Alexandria County until 1920 when the county portion was renamed Arlington County.