Arlington is a city in northern Snohomish County, Washington, lying on the Stillaguamish River in the western foothills of the Cascade Range. Part of the Seattle metropolitan area, it sits about 10 miles north of Everett and directly adjacent to Marysville, a position that places it on the growing northern edge of the Puget Sound region while keeping the mountains and river close at hand. The city's history reaches back more than a century; it marked its 100th anniversary in 2003, and its downtown commercial buildings along Olympic Avenue date to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For much of its life Arlington was a compact agricultural and railroad town, but the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries brought substantial growth, most notably through the 1999 annexation of Smokey Point, a community named for a 1950s roadside café. That annexation extended the city westward along the Interstate 5 corridor and reshaped its residential and commercial geography. Today Arlington is home to roughly 21,000 people and functions largely as a commuter city. Only a small share of employed residents work within the city itself; many travel to Everett, Marysville, Seattle, and other regional job centers. That commuting pattern, combined with ongoing residential development around Smokey Point, gives the city a dual character: a historic river town at its core, and a growing suburban community on its western flank. For someone considering a move, Arlington offers the Stillaguamish River, the Centennial Trail, and Cascade foothill recreation, along with direct highway access to the northern Puget Sound job market. It tends to appeal to families, outdoor enthusiasts, and commuters who want a real downtown with history, plus newer housing stock, without the density and cost of the more central Seattle suburbs.