West Virginia State Map

Regions of West Virginia

West Virginia has no large flat areas: almost the whole state is ridges, plateaus and narrow river valleys. Its odd outline comes from rivers and old colonial survey lines, and from the way it split from Virginia during the Civil War.

Northern Panhandle

A strip of land only a few miles wide between the Ohio River and Pennsylvania. It holds Wheeling and Weirton, old steel and river towns, and is the northernmost part of the South region.

Eastern Panhandle

The lower, eastern end of the state, in the Shenandoah Valley and along the Potomac River, within commuting range of the Washington, D.C., area. It includes Martinsburg, Charles Town and Harpers Ferry, where the Shenandoah meets the Potomac at the corner of West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland. Harpers Ferry National Historical Park preserves the town.

Potomac Highlands and the Allegheny Mountains

The highest and most rugged part of the state, along the eastern border with Virginia. Spruce Knob, the state’s highest point, Seneca Rocks, Dolly Sods and Canaan Valley lie within or near the Monongahela National Forest. Elkins is the main town.

North-central West Virginia

Rolling hills along I-79 with Morgantown, home of West Virginia University, Fairmont and Clarksburg. The Monongahela River flows north from here into Pennsylvania.

Southern coalfields

Steep, forested plateau country cut by deep valleys, centered on Beckley, Bluefield, Logan and Williamson. New River Gorge National Park and Preserve protects the gorge of the New River, crossed by the New River Gorge Bridge on US 19.

Kanawha and Ohio valleys

Most of the state’s flat land is along these rivers. Charleston sits on the Kanawha, and Huntington, Point Pleasant and Parkersburg are Ohio River cities facing Ohio.

Rivers and borders

Rivers mark much of the boundary. The Ohio River forms the entire border with Ohio. The Big Sandy River and its Tug Fork separate West Virginia from Kentucky, and the Potomac River forms most of the border with Maryland. The Kanawha River, formed where the New and Gauley rivers meet, flows through Charleston to the Ohio at Point Pleasant. The northern border with Pennsylvania follows the Mason–Dixon line.

West Virginia was part of Virginia until the Civil War. Its western counties rejected Virginia’s secession in 1861 and formed a new state, admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863.

Major highways

• I-64: from the Kentucky line at Huntington east to Charleston, Beckley and Lewisburg, then into Virginia.
• I-77: from the Ohio River near Parkersburg south to Charleston, then with I-64 on the West Virginia Turnpike to Beckley and on to Princeton and Virginia.
• I-79: north from Charleston to Clarksburg, Fairmont and Morgantown, continuing to Pittsburgh.
• I-68: east from Morgantown into western Maryland.
• I-70 and I-81: short crossings of the panhandles, I-70 through Wheeling and I-81 through Martinsburg.
• US 19: a four-lane shortcut from I-79 south to Beckley, crossing the New River Gorge Bridge.
• US 50 and Corridor H (US 48): US 50 links Parkersburg and Clarksburg; Corridor H runs east from I-79 at Weston through Elkins toward Virginia.