Source: Library of Congress, A map of the most inhabited part of Virginia containing the whole province of Maryland with part of Pensilvania, New Jersey and North Carolina Suffolk grew on the Nansemond River, thanks in part to trade from North Carolina Petersburg also competed for the trade that came down the Roanoke River and was transported by road and later rail for shipping via the Chesapeake Bay. Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Suffolk handled much of the shipping to and from the Albemarle country. Barrier islands on the northern part of Albemarle Sound blocked ships from easy access to the Atlantic Ocean, incentivizing port development in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Norfolk also grew as the export/import center for northeastern North Carolina. Settlers could make a profit shipping food and timber products from the protected harbors of Norfolk, which were the closest to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The sandy soils in the Elizabeth River and Nansemond River watersheds produced poor tobacco, but the region did provide lumber, pork, and produce needed by the Sugar Islands in the Caribbean as well as coastal cities in North America. The initial colonists in 1607 recognized the benefits of ships being able to safely stay in Hampton Roads, but moved upstream to get out of reach of potential European enemies. Its excellent harbor on the Elizabeth River offered shelter from storms and pirates, but the region was exposed to attack by Spanish, Dutch, and French warships. Norfolk grew into a port city almost a century after initial settlement of Virginia. Yorktown, at the mouth of the York River, thrived until its devastation in 1781 during the American Revolution. The first urban areas developed in Tidewater because they were good locations for ports to handle international trade. Source: Mary Burgess - RE/MAX Commonwealth The historic Morris House in Reedville, with 4,864 square feet of living space, was listed for sale in 2016 with a price of $1,595,000 It became the center for the menhaden fishery, and the wealth resulting that business can be viewed today in the grand Victorian homes in that town. The most dramatic development was Reedville in Northumberland County. Town such as Onancock in Accomack County developed as transfer places for fishermen to market their hauls to local customers, and then to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. Gradually, some concentrations of people emerged along the Chesapeake Bay to support the fishing industry. Throughout the 1600's the General Assembly had to pass special legislation mandating ships stop at Jamestown and subsidizing the construction of housing there, just to maintain that town in Virginia. There was no advantage to clustering development. Ĭhesapeake Bay "necks" (peninsulas of land surrounded by water) were settled before towns were established in the colony Farms were created in the middle of the Peninsula, Middle Peninsula, and Northern Neck westward to the Fall Line, but no towns were developed. As the colonial population grew and Native Americans were displaced, land was cleared further away from the river edges. Hauling tobacco and other crops from farms to the rivers required only a short trip over the dirt trails. Many of the farms carved out of the forests in Tidewater had their own loading spot on a navigable river, where ships from Europe stopped to load hogsheads of tobacco.Ĭolonists acquired land on Tidewater "necks" next to the Chesapeake Bay. In the first decade of colonization, the English who settled in Virginia realized that growing tobacco was the best way to gain wealth. Upstream of that site, the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad built a coal exporting facility after the Civil War and Newport News developed. Much later, that site grew into the port city of Hampton. The company's leaders in Virginia sent workers to build a fort at Old Point Comfort, where ships first stopped to get fresh water and news. Once settlement expanded beyond the protection of the fort, wharves were built on the riverbank and warehouses constructed along River Road in New Town. The first colonial port was Jamestown, to which the Virginia Company sent re-supply expeditions. From the beginning, Virginia had port cities - but for the first century, it had very few. Virginia has been integrated into the international economy since Christopher Newport brought the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery from England to Jamestown in 1607. In the first half of the 1700's, colonial settlement advanced westward past the Fall Line and major port cities such as Fredericksburg developed on the Appomattox, James, Rappahannock, and Potomac rivers Port Cities in Virginia Port Cities in Virginia
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