Mount Washington is a city in northeast Bullitt County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,485 at the 2000 census. The estimated population as of 2006 was 11,761. It is located at was once the crossroads of two stagecoach routes, which spurred early population growth and the incorporation in 1822 of a town called Mt. Vernon, after George Washington's home. The name was changed to Mount Washington in 1833 to avoid confusion with Mount Vernon in Rockcastle County. Mount Washington became the economic center of Bullitt County by the 1850s. In the Autumn of 1862, the town was held by John Wharton's Confederate cavalry, who skirmished with Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden's men north of Mount Washington along Floyds Fork on October 1. A defeat the following day lead to a Confederate retreat from the area. Mount Washington's industries aged and by the 1930s it was no longer the most prominent town in the county. The decline continued when fire burned much of the business district on November 18, 1940. Mount Washington enjoyed an influx of new residents starting in the late 1960s with the opening of General Electric's Appliance Park nearby. The population grew from 2,020 in 1970 to over 8,000 by the 2000 census.