Loudon County, Virginia, located just 22 miles west of Washington, D.C., has the greatest concentration of data centers in the United States. According to The New York Times, after years of booming data center construction that has brought lots of benefits to the local region, the county is beginning to rein in data center construction in response to local residents' complaints.
It all started when a federal government demand led to the installation of fiber internet lines in the area, owing to its proximity to Washington, D.C. This grew even more during the dot-com craze of the late ‘90s, when many companies built a ton of fiber connections in the region. This made it ideal for building early data centers in the area, with AOL moving its headquarters in the region in 1996. By the year 2000, the county voted to categorize data centers as office parks, meaning companies can build these structures with little oversight and approvals.
