Telegraph lines had been rebuilt and old businesses began anew. The Town of Clifton also had been founded in 1869. Despite such growth, Fairfax County in 1870 was still mainly a rural, farm-oriented society. Although its population would almost double by 1930, the county would remain largely removed from the rest of the world until that time. During this time period, the county literally exploded, as first people, and later businesses, began calling Fairfax County home.
Demographic numbers tell the story.
From 1930-1950, only 20 years, the population had nearly quadrupled from 25,000 to almost 99,000 people. Currently, the county's population has increased almost 10 times more than that of 1950, to 968,000. The start of this fundamental shift in the county's population began in the early 1930's, when Franklin D. Roosevelt swept into the Presidency of the United States. With Roosevelt's election came increases in federal programs and bureaus. Concurrently with those increases came the additional employees to administer the new programs and to staff the new bureaus.