San Jose, the ultimate edge city. Dimondpark,

• Median resident age: 35.8 years

• Median household income: $74,151 (2000)

• Median house value: $338,200 (year 2000)

For population 25 years and over in Tysons CornerHigh school or higher: 95.0% Bachelor's degree or higher: 69.8% Graduate or professional degree: 31.3% Unemployed: 2.0% Mean travel time to work: 24.0 minutes

The quintessential edge city, Tysons Corner is the largest suburban business district not just in the Washington area, but in the entire United States. Its 35 million square feet of office space make it bigger than all but a handful of the country’s biggest downtowns. With two opulent shopping malls it’s also the largest and best retail district on the East Coast after Midtown Manhattan.

Tysons Corner is, simply, the ultimate suburb. It could be a city - or a major metropolitan area - unto itself. It has more jobs, stores, restaurants and even cultural amenities than most cities. It's the best, worst, and most fundamentally complete vision of the modern suburban town that exists in the world today.

However Tysons is totally dominated by the car. There's no Metro access (although that will change in the not too distant future), and going anywhere by foot is totally out of the question. Even for lovers of the auto, Tysons is a congested mess, since the suburban model relies on a low density landscape, which, despite its development pattern, Tysons is not.