Frederick is a city and the county seat of Frederick County in the State of Maryland. Frederick has been an important crossroads community since it was located in colonial times at the intersection of an important north–south Indian trail, and east–west routes to the Chesapeake Bay both at Baltimore and what became Washington, D.C. and across the Appalachian mountains to the Ohio River watershed. The gateway to western Maryland is now within the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a greater Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area.