Norfolk
Norfolk (Virginia), port city of Virginia, USA; 242,800 residents (2010). See Hampton Roads.
Richmond
Richmond (Virginia), the capital of Virginia, USA; 204,200 residents (2010), of which 51% are black. The city, located on the James River with shipping connection to the Atlantic Ocean, is an administrative, economic and cultural center with a large and diverse industry and several universities. The Philip Morris Cigarette Factory is one of the city’s largest workplaces and a popular tourist destination; Additional points of interest include Parliament Building and Edgar Allan Poe Museum.
History
In 1607 a fort was built on the James River, but abandoned again. In 1637 a trading post was built, which only 100 years later became a town named after Richmond on the Thames in England. The city quickly developed into a trading center, replacing Williamsburg as the capital of Virginia in 1779, and in the 1800’s. it became the most important industrial city in the South; a large part of the labor force were slaves.
When Virginia seceded from the United States in April 1861 and joined the Confederate States of America, the city became the capital of the Southern States and as such an important military target; Richmond was besieged by the Northern State Army 1864-65, and when it fell in April 1865, much of the city was destroyed by the fleeing residents.
Alexandria
Alexandria, a town on the Potomac River in Virginia, USA; 140,000 residents (2010). Old town center with historic buildings from the 1700’s and 1800’s, but otherwise a modern suburb of Washington, DC USA’s oldest newspaper, The Alexandria Gazette, has been published there since 1784.
Jamestown
Jamestown (Virginia), the first permanent English settlement in North America, established by The Virginia Company of London in 1607 on the James River in southeastern Virginia.
The relationship between the colony and the original residents, the Powhatan Indians, was good in the first years, one of the colonists married the chief’s daughter Pocahontas, but after the introduction of tobacco cultivation in 1612, clashes occurred. In 1619, Jamestown became the capital and seat of the Virginia Legislature. The town was destroyed during a revolt in 1676, but was rebuilt; in 1699 Williamsburg became the capital of the place. Jamestown is now part of the Colonial National Historical Park.
Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach, largest city in Virginia, USA, on the Chesapeake Bay on the Atlantic coast; 438,000 residents (2010). The town, which has now grown alongside Norfolk and Newport News, is known for its sandy beaches, which in summer are a major excursion destination. The oyster fishery in Lynnhaven Bay is also known.
Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay, and approximately 300 km long, widely branched and heavily trafficked bay between Baltimore and Norfolk on the east coast of the United States. Across the estuary, a 28 km long fixed link was opened in 1964, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, which has since been much debated due to economic, navigational and environmental conditions.
The bay has in several cases been the scene of naval battles. In 1781, a battle was fought between an English and a French fleet off the Chesapeake Bay. In 1813, an English naval unit ravaged the entire bay, and during the American Civil War, in 1862, the famous duel between the world’s first two armored ships, the Monitor and the Merrimack, took place at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads, one of the largest and busiest port areas in the United States, located at the James River outlet in the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. From here, tobacco was previously exported in particular, now large quantities of coal, while oil and ores are important imports. In addition to refineries, chemical industries and shipyards, etc., the area is home to the US Atlantic Fleet at Norfolk Naval Base. On the north side, the Hampton Roads are surrounded by the towns of Newport News and Hampton, on the south side by Portsmouth and Norfolk. The cities are interconnected by road bridges and tunnels, of which the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel is named after the two vessels that fought a famous naval battle here in 1862 during The American Civil War.
