Hampton Roads
World’s Largest Natural Harbor
Preface: Newport News was a small community located in Warwick County until late in the 19th century. Established as a town in 1880, it was incorporated as a city in 1896. Warwick County, one of the eight original Virginia shires formed by 1634, became extinct in 1952 when it was designated the city of Warwick. It merged with Newport News in 1958.
This body of water before you is the world’s largest natural harbor. Hampton Roads is formed by the confluence of the Elizabeth, James, and Nansemond rivers. The English settlers named this waterway jointly in honor of the Earl of Southampton (a stockholder in the Virginia Company of London) and for the nautical term “roadstead.” At Hampton Roads, the colonists shipped their tobacco crops to England and imported European manufactured goods. The value of the cargo was immense, and the English established fortifications at Old Point Comfort to the east and Newport News Point to the west. Despite these defenses, Hampton Roads attracted pirates and foreign invaders.
The Dutch sent an expedition into Hampton Roads in 1667. This engagement was part of the Second Anglo-Dutch Naval War, which was a struggle for command of the English Channel and worldwide trade. Colonel Miles Cary, Sr., the colony’s ranking militia officer, died while defending Old Point Comfort from the Dutch. The Dutch were pulsed, but the local planters and merchants still contended with pirates who operated from various inland waterways along the Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads. The colonial government took stern measures against these brigands and hanged many of them as examples.
Marker is on 16th Street (Virginia Route 167), on the left when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
