Battle of Craney Island

The Elizabeth River is a 6-mile-long (10 km) tidal estuary forming an arm of Hampton Roads harbor at the southern end of Chesapeake Bay in southeast Virginia in the United States. It is located along the southern side of the mouth of the James River, between the cities of Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Chesapeake. Forming the core of the Hampton Roads harbor, it is heavily supported by its tributaries which depend upon it. Through its Southern Branch and the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, the Elizabeth River also is a gateway to points to the south for the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, an inland path from the ocean providing a more sheltered navigable waterway to Florida for commercial and recreational boating.

Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States 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. Comprising the Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News, VA–NC, metropolitan area and an extended combined statistical area that includes the Elizabeth City, North Carolina, micropolitan statistical area and Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, micropolitan statistical area, Hampton Roads is known for its large military presence, ice-free harbor, shipyards, coal piers, and miles of waterfront property and beaches, all of which contribute to the diversity and stability of the region's economy. The body of water known as Hampton Roads is one of the world's largest natural harbors (more accurately a roadstead or "roads"). It incorporates the mouths of the Elizabeth, Nansemond, and James rivers, together with several smaller rivers, and empties into the Chesapeake Bay near its mouth leading to the Atlantic Ocean.The land area includes a collection of cities, counties, and towns on the Virginia Peninsula and in South Hampton Roads. Some of the outlying areas further from the harbor may or may not be included as part of "Hampton Roads", depending upon the organization or usage. For example, as defined for federal economic purposes, the Hampton Roads metropolitan statistical area (MSA) includes two counties in northeastern North Carolina and two counties in Virginia's Middle Peninsula. The Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News, VA–NC, MSA has an estimated 2022 population of 1,806,840, making it the 37th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. The Combined Statistical Area includes three additional counties in North Carolina, pushing the regional population to 1,898,944 residents, the 32nd-largest CSA in the country.The area is home to hundreds of historical sites and attractions. The harbor was the key to Hampton Roads' growth, both on land and in water-related activities and events. While the harbor and its tributaries were (and still are) important transportation conduits, at the same time they presented obstacles to land-based commerce and travel. Creating and maintaining adequate infrastructure has long been a major challenge. The Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel (HRBT) and the Monitor–Merrimac Memorial Bridge–Tunnel (MMMBT) are major harbor crossings of the Hampton Roads Beltway interstate, which links the large population centers of Hampton Roads. In 2009, the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority (HRTA) was abolished by the Virginia General Assembly less than two years after its creation. In 2014, the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission was established to oversee the Hampton Roads Transportation Fund.

Sewells Point is a peninsula of land in the independent city of Norfolk, Virginia in the United States, located at the mouth of the salt-water port of Hampton Roads. Sewells Point is bordered by water on three sides, with Willoughby Bay to the north, Hampton Roads to the west, and the Lafayette River to the south. It is the site of Naval Station Norfolk.

The Battle of Sewell's Point was an inconclusive exchange of cannon fire between the Union gunboat USS Monticello, supported by the USS Thomas Freeborn, and Confederate batteries on Sewell's Point that took place on May 18, 19 and 21, 1861, in Norfolk County, Virginia in the early days of the American Civil War. Little damage was done to either side. By the end of April 1861, USS Cumberland and a small number of supporting ships were enforcing the Union blockade of the southeastern Virginia ports at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay and had captured several ships which attempted to pass the blockade. USS Monticello's bombardment of the Sewell's Point battery was one of the earliest Union Navy actions against Confederate forces during the Civil War. While it has been suggested by some sources that the Monticello's action may have been the first gunfire by the Union Navy during the Civil War, a brief exchange of cannon fire between the U.S. gunboat USS Yankee and shore batteries manned by Virginia volunteer forces which had not yet been incorporated into the Confederate States Army at Gloucester Point, Virginia on the York River occurred on May 7, 1861.

Welding Shipyards was founded by American shipping businessman, Daniel K. Ludwig (1897–1992) in 1940 at Norfolk, Virginia on the Sewell's Point peninsula. Welding Shipyards build T3 tanker ships for World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Welding Shipyards had one construction berth with 600 workers. The shipyard built what Ludwig was known for Oil tankers. Welding Shipyards built five type T3-S-BF1 tankers, the largest at the time. Ludwig' Welding Shipyards used what is called block construction. To shorten keel to ship launching time due losses to German U-boats, block construction was used. Ships blocks were built as the keel was being laid and then the prefabricated parts were then put in place and welded. With this construction time was reduced dramatically. Welding Shipyards and Ludwig had an important role in this new type of construction. All of the tanker ships were operated by Ludwig's shipping company that he founded, the National Bulk Carriers in 1936 in New York. National Bulk Carriers owned and operated oil tanker ships and bulk carriers. Some of the ships were among the largest in the world at that time. In 1953 Ludwig moved the shipyard operated to the Kure shipyard in Japan. Ludwig leased the Japanese navy Kure yard for 10 years (1950 to 1960). The Welding Shipyards site today is part of the Naval Station Norfolk. In 1940 and early 1941, Welding Shipyards converted older World War I surplus cargo ships into oil tankers.

The Commodore Levy Chapel, established in 1942 and renamed in 1959 in honor of Uriah P. Levy, is the United States Navy's oldest Jewish chapel, located at Naval Station Norfolk, in Norfolk, Virginia. It is part of a chapel complex in the Naval Station's Frazier Hall that also includes Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim Chapels. Commodore Levy Chapel is one of two Navy chapels named for the same person, the other being the Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center and Chapel, at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Newport News Middle Ground Light is a lighthouse near the Monitor–Merrimac Memorial Bridge–Tunnel (MMMBT) on Interstate 664 in Hampton Roads. It is the oldest caisson lighthouse in Virginia.

CSS Virginia was the first steam-powered ironclad warship built by the Confederate States Navy during the first year of the American Civil War; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the razéed (cut down) original lower hull and engines of the scuttled steam frigate USS Merrimack. Virginia was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads, opposing the Union's USS Monitor in March 1862. The battle is chiefly significant in naval history as the first battle between ironclads.

Naval Station Norfolk is a United States Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia, that is the headquarters and home port of the U.S. Navy's Fleet Forces Command. The installation occupies about 4 miles (6.4 km) of waterfront space and 11 miles (18 km) of pier and wharf space of the Hampton Roads peninsula known as Sewell's Point. It is the world's largest naval station, with the largest concentration of U.S. Navy forces through 75 ships alongside 14 piers and with 134 aircraft and 11 aircraft hangars at the adjacently operated Chambers Field. Port Services controls more than 3,100 ships' movements annually as they arrive and depart their berths. Air Operations conducts over 100,000 flight operations each year, an average of 275 flights per day or one every six minutes. Over 150,000 passengers and 264,000 tons of mail and cargo depart annually on Air Mobility Command (AMC) aircraft and other AMC-chartered flights from the airfield's AMC Terminal.

The Jamestown Exposition, also known as the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition of 1907, was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Commemorating the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, it was held from April 26 to December 1, 1907, at Sewell's Point on Hampton Roads, in Norfolk, Virginia. It celebrated the first permanent English settlement in the present United States. In 1975, the 20 remaining exposition buildings were included on the National Register of Historic Places as a national historic district.

Navy Region Mid-Atlantic is one of eleven current naval regions responsible to Commander, Navy Installations Command for the operation and management of Naval shore installations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. It is headquartered on Naval Station Norfolk, and is commanded by RDML Wesley R. McCall.

The Monitor–Merrimac Memorial Bridge–Tunnel (MMMBT) is the 4.6-mile-long (7.4 km) Hampton Roads crossing for Interstate 664 (I-664) in the southeastern portion of Virginia in the United States. It is a four-lane bridge–tunnel composed of bridges, trestles, artificial islands, and tunnels under a portion of the Hampton Roads harbor where the mouths of the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth rivers come together. It connects the independent cities of Newport News on the Virginia Peninsula and Suffolk in South Hampton Roads and is part of the Hampton Roads Beltway, a circumferential Interstate Highway which links the seven largest cities of Hampton Roads. The MMMBT, completed in 1992, provided a third major vehicle crossing of the Hampton Roads harbor area, supplementing the Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel which carries I-64 between the independent cities of Hampton and Norfolk (1957), and the James River Bridge connecting the independent city of Newport News and Isle of Wight County in the South Hampton Roads region (1928). All three facilities are toll-free. The MMMBT cost $400 million to build, and it includes a four-lane tunnel that is 4,800 feet (1,500 m) long, two artificial portal islands, and 3.2 miles (5.1 km) of twin trestle.