Washington County, VA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
5,520 ft 1,685 m4,470 ft 1,365 m3,940 ft 1,200 m2,890 ft 880 m1,840 ft 560 m1,310 ft 400 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- County area
- Fades everything outside the official county boundary (US Census).
Elevation Data
Washington County averages about 2,170 ft (660 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 1,310 ft on the west side to 5,520 ft on Balsam Mountain.
Average elevation
2,170 ft 660 m
all land inside the county
Highest
5,520 ft 1,685 m
on Balsam Mountain
Lowest
1,310 ft 400 m
on the west side
Washington County spans about 4,210 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Average of all land | 2,170 ft660 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Balsam Mountain | 5,520 ft1,685 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the west side | 1,310 ft400 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
19 mi south to north through Abingdon.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Virginia, United States
- Population
- 54,098 2024 est.
- Land area
- 561.2 sq mi + 5.0 sq mi water
- Density
- 96 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Valley and Ridge 91%
- Drains to
- Gulf of America
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Grayson County3,020 ft
- Johnson County, TN2,920 ft
- Smyth County2,690 ft
- Russell County2,260 ft
- Washington County2,170 ft
- Scott County1,830 ft
- Bristol city1,830 ft
- Sullivan County, TN1,710 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Virginia15th highest of 94
- Counties in the United States564th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Beech Mountain, Washington County4,960 ft
- Brumley Mountain4,210 ft
- Middle Knob, Washington County4,200 ft
- The Butt4,060 ft
- Chestnut Mountain, Washington County4,050 ft
All 7 towns in Washington County by typical elevation
- Meadowview2,240 ft
- Glade Spring2,160 ft
- Emory2,120 ft
- Abingdon2,120 ft
- Damascus1,970 ft
- Saltville partly1,910 ft
- Mendota1,440 ft
How we measure
- Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census county boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid. Land means the boundary minus Census area water.
- Highest and lowest: the highest land cell. Lowest: the lowest land cell; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
- Nearby Places: neighboring counties and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the county with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Towns: each town's typical elevation (population-weighted median of its own 2020 blocks at 1 arc-second); a town is listed when any of its 2020 residents live in the county.
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones. All public domain.