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- Amazon announced Tuesday it had split its new "headquarters" between two cities, one of which is called National Landing, Virginia - a place that seemingly didn't exist before Tuesday.
- Even though the name is new, Amazon's Alexa smart assistant has already caught on: if you ask, it can inform you that National Landing is another name for Crystal City, Virginia.
- The new name was created to encompass three urban areas: Crystal City and Pentagon City in Arlington, and Potomac Yard in Alexandria.
Virginia residents were puzzled when Amazon announced Tuesday that National Landing, Virginia was chosen as the site of one of its giant new "HQ2" offices.
That's because until Tuesday National Landing didn't exist. The name appears to have been created specifically for HQ2 - a rebrand of sorts for an area that most Virginians knew as Crystal City.
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Reporter Jordyn Phelps tweeted a video late Tuesday afternoon of an Echo Dot - one of many Amazon devices that is powered by Alexa - being asked what National Landing is.
Alexa hesitates for a second before responding: "Crystal City, the neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia, in Washington metropolitan area."
You can watch it yourself below:
While National Landing didn't exist before Tuesday, the website for northern Virginia's HQ2 bid provides a bit of insight into why Amazon chose the new moniker.
National Landing consists of what the site calls three "connected urban districts": Crystal City and Pentagon City in Arlington, and Potomac Yard in Alexandria. The page says that National Landing boasts 17 million square feet of existing commercial space, along with 150 acres of land that's free for development - plenty of space for Amazon to build a new headquarters.
National Landing is just one of the new sites Amazon chose for its new offices. Long Island City in Queens, New York, will host the other HQ2 office, while Nashville, Tennessee, will be the site of Amazon's new "Center of Excellence for its Operations."