| Virginia, Norfolk — Armed Forces Memorial |
| | The Armed Forces Memorial is located here on a river that has for more than 200 years carried servicemen off to war and returned them home to loved ones. Within the Memorial are 20 inscriptions from letters written home by U.S. service members who lost their lives in war. The letters have been cast in thin sheets of bronze and are scattered across the Memorial as if blown there by the wind. From the Revolutionary War through the Gulf War each confilict is represented.
Revolutionary War . . . — Map (db m3475) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway |
| | Off this point in the Elizabeth River is the zero mile buoy marking the beginning of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. In colonial times water transportation was the principal mode for moving cargo. The idea of a canal connecting the Elizabeth River in Virginia with the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina originated with Colonel William Byrd II of Virginia in 1728 when he was surveying the Virginia-North Carolina border. The Dismal Swamp Canal was authorized by Virginia in 1787 and by North . . . — Map (db m3478) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Battleship Wisconsin: BB-9 and BB-64 — in the Homeport of Naval History |
| | Battleships bearing the name Wisconsin have graced the waters off Norfolk and Hampton Roads since the beginning of the twentieth century. Ornately designed to show-off the “Stars and Stripes” of the United States, the first battleship Wisconsin (BB-9) was commissioned in 1901. John Philip Sousa and the United States Marine Corps Band once performed patriotic marches from the wooden decks of the first Wisconsin. In 1906, President Theodore “Teddy” . . . — Map (db m3376) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Battleship Wisconsin: Berthed in Norfolk — the Homeport of Naval History |
| | Redefining the skyline of downtown Norfolk, battleship Wisconsin stands stoically with dominating presence. After months of dredging and construction, Wisconsin majestically slipped into the seemingly tailored berth without a hitch on 7 December 2000—fifty-seven years after the warship was originally launched. Berthing the 45,000 ton, 887.3 foot long, and 108 foot wide battleship was a major feat of engineering. The waters of the Elizabeth River around Nauticus are extremely . . . — Map (db m3407) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Battleship Wisconsin: A Floating Fortress |
| | Battleship Wisconsin and the sister-ships of the Iowa Class arguably hold a symbolic status as monuments in naval surface warship design. Unlike torpedo boats, tin-can destroyers, flat-top aircraft carriers, and pig-boat submarines, the teak decks and towering masts of Wisconsin have perceivable design connections to a bygone era of romance, glory and naval lore. In the great Nelsonian line-of-battle tradition, the Wisconsin silhouette features visible elements of . . . — Map (db m3378) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Downtown Waterfront Revitalization |
| | In the 1950s the downtown waterfront contained an assortment of aging facilities-wharves, warehouses, rail lines, ship chandlers, tugboat operations, and ferry docks. The city of Norfolk made a significant decision. An area of downtown along the Elizabeth River should be transformed from a working waterfront into a public waterfront. As the old was cleared, the new appeared, beginning with the public esplanade and hotel in 1974. The first Harborfest celebration in 1977 demonstrated that public . . . — Map (db m3480) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Epworth United Methodist Church, 1894 |
| | This 1894 Richardsonian Romanesque granite and sandstone church was designed by Norfolk architects James E. R. Carpenter and John V. Peebles. It was built to accommodate the growing congregation of the 1850 Granby Street Methodist Church at the northeast corner of Granby and Freemason Streets. Both churches originated from the 1802 Cumberland Street Methodist Church, the first Methodist congregation in Norfolk.
The congregation named their new house of worship “Epworth,” after . . . — Map (db m3372) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Flood Protection for Downtown Norfolk |
| | Tidal flooding from hurricanes and northeasters has always been a part of Norfolk’s relationship with the sea. In 1693, the Royal Society of London reported that “there happened a most violent storm in Virginia, which stopped the course of ancient channels and made some where there never were any.” Hurricanes in 1749 and 1806 formed the Willoughby Spit section of Ocean View, and a hurricane in August 1933 killed 18 people. In March 1962, the City was struck bye the “Ash . . . — Map (db m3374) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Half Moone Fort, 1673 |
| | Hostilities between the British and the Dutch continued for a number of years after the British took New Amsterdam in 1664 and established the colony of New York. The effects were felt in Hampton Roads where Dutch ships destroyed a fleet of tobacco ships at the mouth of the James River in 1667 and another fleet in Lynnhaven Bay in 1673. Following the 1673 attack the Virginia Assembly authorized construction of a fort in Lower Norfolk County to protect British settlements from possible future . . . — Map (db m21212) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Navy Escort Carriers Based in Norfolk |
| | Navy Escort Carriers based in Norfolk helped win the Battle of the Atlantic. They were the smallest, slowest, and most vulnerable of the Navy's aircraft carriers, but as noted World War II historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote, "These escort carrier groups were probably the greatest single contribution of the United States Navy to victory over the enemy submarines."
The first Escort Carriers (CVEs) were converted oilers or built on merchant ship hulls and were originally used to train . . . — Map (db m21213) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — St. Paul’s Church, 1739 |
| | In 1641 a “chapel of ease” was built here where St. Paul’s Church is now. The 1680 survey of the new town designated this site for a church and burying ground. Many of the founders of Norfolk are buried here. When Norfolk became a borough by royal charter in 1736, it was decided to erect a more substantial church. The new Borough Church was completed in 1739 and became a center of community activities. Along with the rest of Norfolk the church was burned during the British . . . — Map (db m3371) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — The Cedar |
| | A cedar tree near this location, then known as Foure Farthing Pointe, was described in the original patent defining the western boundary of the 50 acres that comprised Norfolk Town. In August 1680 John Ferebee, surveyor for Lower Norfolk County, was instructed to survey a town site on the Elizabeth River. This was completed in October 1680, but it was not until August 1682 that the county, through its agents Anthony Lawson and William Robinson, bought the town site from Nicholas Wise, a . . . — Map (db m3409) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — The First Battle of Ironclad Ships, 1862 |
| | On March 8, 1862 CSS Virginia steamed past this point (1) to a battle which would forever change naval warfare. This ship had previously been a Union steam frigate, USS Merrimack, which had been destroyed near the Gosport Navy Yard (2). Confederate forces found its hull to be sound and constructed a superstructure with iron plates to create a new kind of warship. The Virginia proceeded out into Hampton Roads where she sank USS Cumberland and severely damaged USS . . . — Map (db m3476) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — The Underground Railroad |
| | After northern states began abolishing slavery during the Revolutionary era, fugitives from throughout southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina started to escape by ship from the Norfolk waterfront. With luck and determination, many succeeded in enlisting the aid of black crewmen working aboard northward-bound vessels. Two of the South’s most famous Underground Railroad fugitives, George Latimer and Shadrach Minkins, escaped from Norfolk, most likely by sea. A few ship captains . . . — Map (db m5602) |
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