to
Update
(pronounced "mick-CLANE") is an unincorporated area in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. The community had a total population of 38,929 as of the 2000 census.
The densely populated community of McLean is located between the George Washington Parkway and the town of Vienna, and is known for its many upscale homes, as well as its shopping and upscale malls, including the nearby Tysons Corner Center and Tysons Galleria which have 'McLean, Virginia' addresses.
McLean is home to many diplomats, members of Congress and high-ranking federal government officials, entrepreneurs and service businesses partially attributable to the close location to Washington, D.C. and the Central Intelligence Agency. It is also the location of Hickory Hill, the home of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy.
Several major companies are headquartered in McLean including Bearingpoint, Booz Allen Hamilton, Capital One, Cardinal Bank, Freddie Mac, Gannett, Mars, MicroStrategy, NVR, Sunrise Senior Living, and USA Today.
The community received its name from John Roll McLean, the former publisher and owner of
, who, with Stephen Benton Elkins and the bankroll of French aristocrat Jean-Pierre Guenard, built in 1906 the electrified Great Falls and Old Dominion Railway (later the Washington and Old Dominion Railway), which connected the area with Washington, D.C. McLean named a station after himself where the rail line (travelling on the present route of Old Dominion Drive) crossed the old Chain Bridge Road. The community itself was founded in 1910, when the communities of Lewinsville and Langley merged.