Amazon’s Alexa already knows about the National Landing, Virginia name

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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. 

But somehow, Amazon’s Alexa smart assistant has already
caught on to the new name, and appears to be fully on board with
it.

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.”