540 Area Code – Roanoke, Virginia: Location, Time Zone & History

Western and northern-outer Virginia has depended on healthcare, rail transportation and logistics, higher education, agriculture, and manufacturing to sustain its economy since area code 540 was carved out of area code 703 on July 15, 1995. The split gave the Shenandoah Valley, Roanoke Valley, New River Valley, and the Fredericksburg area their own numbering identity, while 703 remained with Northern Virginia. In 2001 the territory was trimmed further when the farthest southwestern corner of the state was split off as area code 276.

Growth in the region eventually outpaced the remaining supply of numbers, and in 2020 the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved area code 826 as an overlay covering the same 540 footprint. Mandatory ten-digit local dialing took effect on May 14, 2022, and new numbers began being assigned from 826 the following month. The overlay allows Roanoke, Harrisonburg, Fredericksburg, Winchester, Staunton, and Blacksburg to keep growing under a shared numbering plan rather than being split again.

Roanoke, the region's largest city, calls itself the "Star City of the South" for the illuminated Roanoke Star atop Mill Mountain and serves as a gateway to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Agriculture and orchards remain a fixture of the Shenandoah Valley economy, and tourism draws heavily on the area's Civil War history, including the battlefields preserved near Fredericksburg.