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Virginia Beach, Virginia
City History |
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| Chesepians were the first inhabitants of the area now known as South Hampton Roads in Virginia. The Algonquian word "Chesepioc" means "Great Shellfish Bay", a reference to the Chesapeake Bay. They occupied an area which is now the independent cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. In 1607, after a voyage of 144 days, three ships headed by Captain Christopher Newport carrying 105 men and boys made their first landfall in the New World where the Atlantic Ocean meets the southern mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in the northeastern part of the city. They named it Cape Henry, after Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. However, these English colonists of the Virginia Company of London left the area, as they were under orders to seek a site further inland which would be more sheltered from ships of competing European countries. They created their first permanent settlement at Jamestown. Adam Thoroughgood of King's Lynn, is one of the earliest Englishmen to settle in the area which became Virginia Beach. At the age of 18, he became an indentured servant to pay for passage to the Virginia Colony. He earned his freedom and became a leading citizen of the area. In 1629, he was elected to the House of Burgesses for Elizabeth City. The small resort area of Virginia Beach grew in Princess Anne County beginning in the late 19th century, particularly after the 1888 arrival of rail service and electricity and the opening of the original Princess Anne Hotel at the oceanfront near the tiny community of Seatack. Although the resort was initially dependent upon railroad and electric trolley service, completion of the concrete Virginia Beach Boulevard extending from Norfolk in 1922 opened access for automobiles, buses, and trucks, and passenger rail service was eventually discontinued. The growing resort of Virginia Beach became an incorporated town in 1906. Over the next 45 years, Virginia Beach continued to grow in popularity as a seasonal vacation spot, and casinos gave way to amusement parks and family-oriented attractions. Virginia Beach became a tiny independent city, politically independent from Princess Anne County in 1952, although the numerous ties between Virginia Beach and Princess Anne remained. In 1963, the City of Virginia Beach and Princess Anne County, were consolidated as a new, much larger independent city, retaining the better-known name of the Virginia Beach resort. The city is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the longest pleasure beach in the world and is located at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the longest bridge-tunnel complex in the world. Virginia Beach is still today best known as a resort, with miles of beaches and hundreds of hotels, motels, and restaurants along its oceanfront. It is also home to several state parks, several long protected beach areas, three military bases, a number of large corporations, and two universities. Virginia Beach was the site of the first landing of English colonists bound for Jamestown. |
Historic Figures
Captain Christopher Newport (1561–1617)| Captain Christopher Newport (1561–1617) | |
| Christopher Newport was an English sailor. He is best known as the captain of the Susan Constant, the largest of three ships which carried settlers for the Virginia Company in 1607 on the way to found the settlement at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, which became the first permanent English settlement in North America. He made several voyages of supply between England and Jamestown; in 1609, he became Captain of the new supply ship Sea Venture, which met a hurricane and was shipwrecked on Bermuda. That event began Bermuda's permanent settlement by England. That archipelago is still a territory (formerly a possession, dependency, or colony) of the United Kingdom almost 400 years later. | |
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