Manassas

Manassas lies in the Virginia Piedmont, in a country stretching from the Potomac toward the Bull Run Mountains. The name appears as Manassas Run in a land survey of 1737, though its origin remains disputed. European settlement in the surrounding area dates from the late seventeenth century; in 1730 the colonial authorities created Prince William County across this varied landscape of river lowlands and uplands. Farms and plantations were established in the surrounding countryside.