If DC hadn't lost Alexandria and Arlington, it would be over 1 million population

It's been awhile since I've thought about this, but an email discussion reminded me.  When the District of Columbia was first created, it was a 100 square mile diamond shaped district, incorporating land from Maryland and Virginia.



The Maryland side was mostly underdeveloped, with the exception of the Town of Georgetown.  The Virginia side had the City of Alexandria and its growing port.

In 1847, the Virginia side was retroceded back to Virginia, because of rising anti-slavery sentiment and the existence of a large and successful trade in selling slaves in Alexandria.  Retrocession protected that business from potential changes in its legality.

That cut DC in size from about 100 square miles, to 61 square miles.

These days, DC is the fourth largest "county" in the area.

Jurisdiction	Population
Fairfax County, Virginia	1,146,883
Montgomery County, Maryland	1,048,244
Prince George's County, Maryland	908,801
District of Columbia	711,517
Arlington County, Virginia	235,121
Alexandria City, Virginia	160,530

But if it were combined with Arlington and Alexandira, the population would be 1,107,168, just a little behind Fairfax County.  And DC would be about 1/4 the size in square miles compared to either Fairfax or Montgomery Counties.

Nationally, DC would be vying with San Jose, as the tenth largest city in the US. (Although if Baltimore City and Baltimore County took my recommendation for merger, than DC/San Jose would be vying for 11th place.)