Virginia’s aCorridor is a region of diverse opportunities.
From recreation and entertainment
to education
and healthcare, the region
offers quality choices.
Parts of Virginia’s
aCorridor connect with the Tri-Cities TN/VA region with a population
of nearly 500,000. The only region in the country to be designated
an All-America City in 1999, this area offers a range of amenities
including symphonies and ballet, NASCAR racing, Minor League Baseball
and outstanding medical and higher education facilities.
Musical
Heritage
Musical heritage is vitally
important to the aCorridor region. Designated as the Birthplace
of Country Music, Bristol’s Birthplace of Country Music Museum
is also a stop on the “Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage
Music Trail.”
The new cultural heritage
tourism route includes two other aCorridor musical venues –
the Old Fiddler’s Convention in Galax and the Blue Ridge Music
Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is being developed by the
National Park Service in partnership with The National Council for
the Traditional Arts to preserve, interpret, and present traditional
music of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
 The
Tri-Cities TN/VA region that connects with the aCorridor’s
Bristol and Washington County offers symphonies, ballet, concerts
and theater to the region’s residents.
Abingdon is the home of
the State Theatre of Virginia – Barter Theatre – which
offers year-round live theater performances. Regional theater abounds
in the area as well, with the Wolfhart Haus Dinner Theatre in Wytheville
and the Rex Theater in Galax. In Marion, the historic Lincoln Theatre
has been restored as a community cultural arts center.
Musical Heritage
Links:
Outdoor
Recreation
Along with the spectacular
natural beauty of the region, outdoor adventures abound in the aCorridor
including hiking, mountain biking, canoeing, kayaking, camping,
horseback riding, bird watching, hunting, fishing, golfing and cross
country skiing.
State parks include Grayson
Highlands State Park, the New River Trail State Park, Hungry Mother
State Park, and the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. The New
River flows through much of the upper aCorridor.
Portions of the Jefferson
National Forest and the Appalachian Trail are part of Virginia’s
aCorridor, as well as locations near the Blue Ridge and Allegheny
Mountain ranges. Virginia’s two highest mountains –
Mount Rogers and Whitetop – are located in Grayson County.
 The
Bristol area offers many amenities, from the historic downtown area
to the scenic beauty of the Appalachian Mountains and Holston Lake
and the excitement of the Bristol Motor Speedway NASCAR races. The
Tri-Cities region is home to four minor league professional baseball
teams.
Several notable golf courses
are located in the aCorridor, including The Virginian, which its
residential development has been ranked as one of the 18 best places
in America to live by the Robb Report magazine.
Outdoor Recreation
Links:
Education
Virginia’s aCorridor
region is home to two Virginia Community Colleges. Wytheville Community
College in Wytheville and Virginia Highlands Community College in
Abingdon provide degree and certification programs, as well as business
training on campus and in off-site locations throughout the region.
The Southwest Virginia
Higher Education Center in Abingdon offers not only superb high-tech
meeting facilities but more than 60 graduate and undergraduate degree
programs from nine Virginia colleges and universities. Degree programs
are offered from Virginia Tech, University of Virginia, University
of Virginia’s College at Wise, Radford University, Old Dominion
University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Emory and Henry College,
Virginia Intermont, and King College.
Emory and Henry College,
a four-year private liberal arts college is located in Emory, Virginia,
in Washington County. Other four-year institutions located in the
Bristol region are Virginia Intermont College, King College and
the Bristol campus of East Tennessee State University.
Education Links:
Festivals
Many months of the year
in the aCorridor there are various annual festivals and events that
put communities on the map.
More than 40,000 visitors
flock to Felts Park in Galax for the internationally known Old Fiddler’s
Convention held annually the second weekend in August. Also sharing
an international reputation, the Virginia Highlands Festival has
put the Town of Abingdon on the map the first two weeks of August
for more than 50 years.
The Town of Hillsville
in Carroll County comes alive every Labor Day weekend with a gigantic
flea market that extends through the town. Independence in Grayson
County is known for its traditional July 4th Celebration; the Mount
Rogers area is home to wild pony sales and mountain music celebrations
each spring; and Bristol is home to the annual Rhythm and Roots
Reunion each fall.
Festival Links:
Health
and Wellness
The aCorridor offers excellent
health and wellness services including a major medical complex in
Bristol that is a teaching hospital for a medical school and a comprehensive
cancer treatment center in Abingdon.
Wellmont Bristol Regional
Medical Center, a community healthcare provider for nearly eight
decades, is located on a state-of-the-art campus completed in January
1994. The 348-bed hospital is situated on 125 acres and offers a
vast spectrum of cutting-edge medical services and technologies.
Over 500 physicians practice in the Tri-Cities Area.
In addition to Centers
of Excellence that include acute care, cancer care, cardiac care,
neuroscience, occupational health, outpatient services, rehabilitative
services, and women’s health,. Wellmont Bristol Regional offers
a Level II Trauma Center as well as a dedicated pediatrics unit.
The hospital is a member of the Children's Miracle Network.
In Abingdon, Johnston Memorial Hospital
is a primary care provider and regional referral center serving
Washington County and surrounding counties in Southwest Virginia
and East Tennessee.
The hospital provides a broad range
of inpatient and outpatient services, including the only Level II
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Southwest Virginia west of
Roanoke. 
Johnston Memorial's $22 million comprehensive cancer center is opening
in stages in its Abingdon location.
More than 120 active,
courtesy and consulting physicians comprise the hospital’s
medical team, offering a variety of specialty and sub-specialty
services.
In Marion,
wellness and top-notch healthcare services are available through
Smyth County Community Hospital, a170-bed facility. The Lifetime
Wellness Center, open to the community, is a modern 54,000 sq. ft
fitness and educational facility located on the hospital campus.
 
In Wytheville, Wythe County
Community Hospital is a 104-bed facility that is fully accredited
by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
In operation since 1972, it is Wythe County’s only hospital
and provides care to a primary service area of approximately 36,000
individuals including Wythe and Bland counties.
Wythe County Community
Hospital employs more than 350 full-time employees and is staffed
by over 80 physicians and consulting/courtesy physicians. The hospital
operates under the guidance of a 15-member Board of Directors.
The upper region of the
aCorridor is served by the Twin County Regional Hospital in Galax.
This facility is the cornerstone of family healthcare services in
this region and provides full range of medical care services. With
a team of physicians representing more than two dozen medical specialties,
a wide range of treatment options are available locally to the residents
of Galax, Carroll and Grayson counties. A wellness center also operates
in this region.
Health and Wellness
Links:
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