Where is the Central Intelligence Agencys headquarters? Is it in Langley or McLean, Virginia?
Technically, you could say CIA headquarters is in both. “Langley” is the name of the McLean neighborhood in which the CIA resides. The town of McLean was founded in 1910, but before then, the area where CIA Headquarters is located was known as Langley. In 1719, Thomas Lee purchased a tract of land from the sixth Lord Fairfax (for whom Fairfax County, the county in which McLean is located, was named), and he named it “Langley” after his ancestral home in England. Though Lee never lived on the land, the Langley area soon became home to many European settlers. A few were wealthy people whom England had granted land, and they established large plantations in the area. During the War of 1812, President James Madison and his wife Dolley fled the British siege of Washington to the safety of family and friends in Langley. Langley was a Union stronghold in Virginia, a southern state, during the Civil War and had two forts, Camp Griffin and Camp Pierpont, which housed soldiers who helped protect
