Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 433,750 in 2009, and in 2019, it was estimated to be 449,974. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city in Virginia and the 44th most populous city in the nation. Located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Beach is the largest city in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. This area, known as "America's First Region", also includes the independent cities of Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Suffolk, as well as other smaller cities, counties, and towns of Hampton Roads.
Chesapeake Beach is a town in Calvert County, Maryland, United States. Its major attractions include the Chesapeake Beach Railway Station, the Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail, a water park, marinas, piers, and charter boat fishing. The town's population was recorded as 5,753 in the 2010 census.
Betterton is a town in Kent County, Maryland, United States. The population was 345 at the 2010 census.
Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean, and the surrounding metropolitan region located in the southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina portions of the Tidewater region.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel (CBBT) is a 17.6-mile (28.3 km) bridge–tunnel crossing at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the Hampton Roads harbor, and nearby mouths of the James and Elizabeth rivers in the U.S. state of Virginia. It connects Northampton County on the Delmarva Peninsula and Eastern Shore with Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Portsmouth on the western shore and south side/Tidewater, which are part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of eight close cities around the harbor's shores and peninsula. The bridge–tunnel originally combined 12 miles (19 km) of trestle, two one-mile-long (1.6 km) tunnels, four artificial islands, four high-level bridges, approximately two miles (3.2 km) of causeway, and 5.5 miles (8.9 km) of northeast and southwest approach roads crossing the Chesapeake Bay and preserving traffic on the Thimble Shoals and Chesapeake dredged shipping channels leading to the Atlantic. It replaced vehicle ferry services that operated from South Hampton Roads and from the Virginia Peninsula since the 1930s. Financed by toll revenue bonds, the bridge-tunnel was opened on April 15, 1964, and remains one of only 12 bridge–tunnel systems in the world, three of which are located in the water-dominated Hampton Roads area of Tidewater Virginia.
Virginia Wesleyan University (VWU) is a private university in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The university is nonsectarian but historically affiliated with The United Methodist Church. It enrolls approximately 1,600 students annually in undergraduate, graduate, and online programs, approximately 400 students at LUJ/VWU Global (Japan), and approximately 3,000 non-credit learners in VWU Global Campus. Virginia Wesleyan transitioned from a college to a university in 2017.
County of Princess Anne is a former county in the British Colony of Virginia and the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, first incorporated in 1691. The county was merged into the city of Virginia Beach on January 1, 1963, ceasing to exist.
Tidewater Community College (TCC) is a public community college in South Hampton Roads, Virginia, with campuses in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach. It is part of the Virginia Community College System and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award the associate degree.
Pembroke Manor is an area in the independent city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States located around the intersections of Virginia Beach Boulevard and Independence Boulevard. The community's name comes from Pembroke Manor, a plantation built in 1764. The house was donated by the Aragona family to the Princess Anne Historical Society, but currently is under private ownership and serves as Ivy League Academy, a private Christian school for children K4 through 5th grades. The structure itself was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 as #70000887 and is one of the oldest and most significant structures in the City of Virginia Beach.
The Lesner Bridge in Virginia Beach, Virginia connects the bay area to the Virginia Beach shore via Shore Drive — crossing the Lynnhaven Inlet at the mouth the Chesapeake Bay. The bridge lies approximately three miles from the southern terminus of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. The first bridge in the same location, a draw-bridge, had been constructed in 1928, replaced in 1958 by what are now the eastbound lanes of a dual span. Westbound lanes were constructed as a parallel span in 1967.
Miller & Rhoads was a Virginia-based department store chain. Throughout its 105-year lifespan, the store played an active role in the Richmond, Virginia community, along with its friendly cross-street rival Thalhimers. The Richmond flagship location was known for its "SantaLand" upstairs attraction, which has since become an attraction at the Children’s Museum of Richmond. In 1987, Campeau purchased Miller & Roads and later sold it to Philadelphia developer Kevin Donohoe and store management before closing in 1990.
The Lynnhaven River is a tidal estuary located in the independent city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the United States, and flows into the Chesapeake Bay west of Cape Henry at Lynnhaven Inlet, beyond which is Lynnhaven Roads. It has a small, developed watershed covering 64 square miles (170 km2), terminating at Lynnhaven Bay. It was once famous along the East Coast of the United States for its oysters, which declined through pollution and runoff. It is now being restored by the Lynnhaven River Now restoration project based out of the Brock Environmental Center. A proposed comprehensive project for ecosystem restoration of the Lynnhaven River Basin is currently under consideration by the United States Congress.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is a non-profit organization devoted to the restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay in the United States. It was founded in 1967 and has headquarters offices in Annapolis, Maryland. The foundation has field offices in Salisbury, Maryland; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Norfolk, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Chesapeake Beach, also known as Chic's Beach or Chick's Beach is a stretch of beaches running about two miles from the Lynnhaven Inlet to just west of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States. What originated as a lookout post during war, the beaches eventually turned to more recreational activities. The area developed in the early 1900s as a beachfront residential community. Chic's was a place where you could pick up limeade and an ice cream. Eventually, this site became what is now Buoy 44 Restaurant. The terms Chic's and Chick's Beach have stuck. It is a diverse area consisting of beach cottages, condominiums, townhouses, duplexes, apartments, and single-family homes. The neighborhoods of Baylake Pines and Baylake Beach hug the east side of the community, although the popularity of the Chicks Beach area has those in Ocean Park claiming a piece of it as well. The beach community is bordered on the south by Shore Drive. Shore Drive is one of the corridors leading to the tourist destination of the Virginia Beach oceanfront and is currently undergoing many improvements to the biking and jogging trails. Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base caps the west side of this community, merging longer stretches of undeveloped, protected beaches which harbor dolphin and other marine life.
State Route 225 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known as Independence Boulevard, the state highway runs 5.40 miles (8.69 km) from South Boulevard north to U.S. Route 60 within the independent city of Virginia Beach. SR 225 connects Interstate 264 (I-264) with US 58 in the Pembroke Manor area of the city and with US 13 near Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. The unnumbered portion of Independence Boulevard to the south connects those areas with the Princess Anne section of the city.
The Adam Keeling House is a historic house in Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States.
Henry Town, Henry Towne, or Henries Towne was an early English colonial settlement near Cape Henry, the southern point and gateway to the Chesapeake Bay in the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, now in modern Virginia Beach, Virginia, on the East Coast of the United States. Archaeologist Floyd Painter of the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences originally excavated the site in 1955, but it was only conclusively determined to be Henry Town in 2007 by United States Army scientists reviewing the site's artifacts, and no primary source documents exist. It was located east of Norfolk, Virginia and north of Chesapeake and south of the Hampton Roads harbor at approximately 36°54′30″N76°7′20″W. The historical and archeological site is immediately north of U.S. Route 60 on what is now Lake Joyce, formerly an inlet connecting with Pleasure House Creek, a western branch of the Lynnhaven River, itself an estuary of the Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads.
The Philip Merrill Environmental Center is a Green building owned and operated by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Built in 2001, the Merrill Center is located in Annapolis, Maryland on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The building serves as the headquarters office building for the CBF, but is also available to rent for business and social occasions.
The Chesapeake Beach Railway (CBR), now defunct, was an American railroad of southern Maryland and Washington, D.C., built in the 19th century. The CBR ran 27.629 miles from Washington, D.C., on tracks formerly owned by the Southern Maryland Railroad and then on its own single track through Maryland farm country to a resort at Chesapeake Beach. It was built by Otto Mears, a Colorado railroad builder, who planned a shoreline resort with railroad service from Washington and Baltimore. It served Washington and Chesapeake Beach for almost 35 years, but the Great Depression and the rise of the automobile marked the end of the CBR. The last train left the station on April 15, 1935. Parts of the right-of-way are now used for roads and a future rail trail.
Living shorelines are a relatively new approach for addressing shoreline erosion and protecting marsh areas. Unlike traditional structures such as bulkheads or seawalls that worsen erosion, living shorelines incorporate as many natural elements as possible which create more effective buffers in absorbing wave energy and protecting against shoreline erosion. The process of creating a living shoreline is referred to as soft engineering, which utilizes techniques that incorporate ecological principles in shoreline stabilization. The natural materials used in the construction of living shorelines create and maintain valuable habitats. Structural and organic materials commonly used in the construction of living shorelines include sand, wetland plants, sand fill, oyster reefs, submerged aquatic vegetation, stones and coir fiber logs.
