Tysons Corner is an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County , Virginia , United States . Part of the Washington Metropolitan Area located in Northern Virginia , Tysons Corner lies between the community of McLean and the town of Vienna along the Capital Beltway (I-495). The population was 19,627 as of the 2010 census . [ 1 ] It is the 12th largest employment center in the United States. [ 4 ]

 

The area is home to Tysons Corner Center – the largest shopping mall in the state and in the Baltimore-Washington area – and two upscale shopping centers, Tysons Galleria and Fairfax Square , which neighbor it to the north and south. Every weekday, Tysons Corner draws 55,000 shoppers from around the region. [ 5 ]

Tysons Corner has 46 million square feet (4.3 million m²) of office and retail space, making it an important business district in its own right and the classic example of an edge city . [ 6 ] Notable companies in the area typically use McLean or Vienna addresses rather than Tysons Corner. However, in April 2011, the United States Postal Service approved the use of Tysons Corner as a postal address for the 22102 and 22182 ZIP codes of McLean and Vienna, respectively. [ 7 ]

Tysons Corner was one of the inspirations for, and figures prominently in, Joel Garreau 's pioneering study of the edge city phenomenon. [ 8 ] Among the reasons for calling Tysons Corner an edge city is that, in contrast to typical "bedroom" suburbs, people commute into it in the morning and away from it at night, with a daytime population greater than 100,000 and a nighttime population of less than 20,000. [ 9 ] That has created a lot of traffic congestion, which local urban planners hope to mitigate by enticing more people to live there, and thus not have to get in their automobiles to get to work if they also can work there. The planned extension of the Washington Metro via the new Silver Line into Tysons Corner will ease access for residents as well. Planners envision up to 200,000 jobs and 100,000 residents in coming decades. [ 6 ]

Known originally as Peach Grove, the area received the designation Tysons Crossroads after the Civil War . William Tyson from Cecil County, Maryland, purchased a tract of land from A. Lawrence Foster.

Tyson, a Maryland native, was born about 1818. He and his wife Susan (nee Harvey) Tyson had nine children: Catherine, Lydia, Rebecca, Frances, Andrew, Anna, Harvey, Bessie, and Susan.

Tyson served as postmaster of the now discontinued Peach Grove Post Office 1854-1866. The Peach Grove Post office was established Tuesday, April 22, 1851. [ 10 ]

As recently as the 1950s, Tysons Corner was a quiet rural intersection flanked by a few small stores. Big changes came in 1963 when the Tysons area moved from a country crossroads to a giant commercial urban area with the awarding of contracts at the interchange of Route 7 and Route 123 .

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1962 approved a Tysons Corner Shopping Center of 88.13 acres (356,600 m 2 ) within 150 acres (0.61 km 2 ) triangle bordered by Chain Bridge Road , Leesburg Pike , and the Capital Beltway . Developers proclaimed it as the largest enclosed mall in the world when it opened July 25, 1968. [ 11 ]

In recent years, the influx of technology companies into Northern Virginia has brought many new office buildings and hotels to the landscape. The rapid growth of Tysons Corner (in comparison to other locations near the Capital Beltway) has been the topic of numerous studies. [ 12 ] One factor was the aggressive promotion of Tysons Corner by Earle Williams, for many years the CEO of the defense contracting firm Braddock Dunn & McDonald . [ 12 ]