Come see a place that welcomed the
first permanent English settlers to arrive in America (our first tourists, you might say.)
A place that has grown with the times. A place that's familiar and surprising at the same
time. Come see Virginia Beach.
Experience the Atlantic itself, sailing, surfing, swimming, fishing and diving. Or try it
in the Chesapeake Bay. Wiggle your toes in 35 miles of clean sand, spike a volleyball or
simply lay back on your towel and watch the dolphins. Snooze in one of our 11,000 rooms
(5,000 on the oceanfront), stroll the famous boardwalk with its fabulous new facelift,
take a spin on the carousel, eat a blue crab dripping with butter or listen to a band at
the oceanfront, the sound of the waves keeping time in the background. Take a bike or a
hike over a marshland with knobby cypress knees or through a forest of water oaks draped
with lacy Spanish moss. See the sun set over the water (isn't this the East Coast?), surf
the wind, chase sandpipers and watch soaring bald eagles. Go further inland and golf,
shop, canoe, pick strawberries, explore a museum, and fly a kite.
Hey, it's as old as the shifting dunes and as new as the salt water taffy made this
morning. It's Virginia Beach. Come see it for the first time. Again.
Centrally located on the U.S. East
Coast, Virginia Beach is situated in the southeastern corner, where the state of Virginia
meets the sea. This popular resort city is just three and a half hours south of
Washington, D.C., and within a short driving distance to most U.S. cities, making it the
perfect vacation destination for one-third of the U.S. population.
|
Distance
From Selected Cities |
|
Atlanta, GA |
578 miles |
Philadelphia, PA |
249 mil |
|
Baltimore, MD |
243 miles |
Pittsburgh, PA |
482 miles |
|
Boston, MA |
583 miles |
Richmond, VA |
104 miles |
|
Charlotte, NC |
350 miles |
St. Louis, MO |
990 miles |
|
Chicago, IL |
886 miles |
Washington, D.C. |
200 miles |
|
Cleveland, OH |
556 miles |
Montreal, Quebec |
1224 km |
|
Detroit, MI |
718 miles |
Quebec City,
Quebec |
1366 km |
|
New York, NY |
348 miles |
Toronto,
Ontario |
1280 km |
Climate
Virginia Beach's mild climate encourages a long visitor season, and travelers are
delighted to discover that spring comes early and fall stays late. These months are ideal
for visitors who like vacationing when the pace is more relaxed. Summer is the traditional
vacation season. And with events such as Holiday Lights at the Beach display, people are
discovering Virginia Beach is a unique winter getaway as well.
Average Temperatures
|
MONTH |
HIGH |
LOW |
AVERAGE
WATER TEMP. |
|
January |
48°F / 09°C |
34°F / 09°C |
47°F / 08°C |
|
February |
50°F / 10°C |
35°F/ 01°C |
48°F / 09°C |
|
March |
58°F / 14°C |
41°F/ 05°C |
48°F / 09°C |
|
April |
67°F / 19°C |
50°F/ 10°C |
48°F / 09°C |
|
May |
76°F / 24°C |
59°F/ 15°C |
50°F / 14°C |
|
June |
83°F / 28° C |
67°F/ 19°C |
67°F /19°C |
|
July |
87°F / 30°C |
72°F/ 22°C |
73°F / 23 |
|
August |
85°F / 29°C |
72°F/ 22°C |
76°F / 24°C |
|
September |
80°F / 26°C |
67°F/ 19°C |
72°F / 22°C |
|
October |
70°F / 21°C |
53°F/ 11°C |
67°F / 19°C |
|
November |
61°F / 16°C |
46°F/ 07°C |
60°F /16°C |
|
December |
52°F / 11°C |
37°F/ 02°C
|
53°F /12°C |
Some History
Contrary to popular belief, John Smith was not among the first
landing party in the new world. When Admiral Christopher Newport organized the 30 or so
men who were to go ashore, Smith was under arrest and in chains for taking part in
mutinous disturbances en route to the new world.
Captain
John Smith
Nevertheless, the landing party came ashore in the present
city of Virginia Beach on the morning of April 26th, 1607. It was springtime and as the
adventurers climbed the huge sand dunes their view of the dogwood trees in full bloom, and
the climbing yellow jasmines intermingled with the deep green recesses on the woodland
moved 26 year old Master George Percy to write that, "Heaven and Earth never agreed
better to frame a place for man's habitations than Virginia."
On April 29th, the voyagers returned to the entrance of the
great body of water they officially named The Chesapeake Bay, using the same name the
Indians used. There they erected a cross and named the spot Cape Henry, after the popular
Prince of Wales, who was only 13 at the time. They claimed all the land in the name of God
and England and on the sand of Virginia Beach conducted the first religious ceremony of
the Church of England in America.
The First Landing
Captain Newport,
fearing the landing site too vulnerable to Spanish and Indian attack, moved his colonists
farther inland to establish the Capital City. On May 13, 1607, he chose a small island on
the James River to establish the first permanent English Colony in the new world. King
James had ordered that the capital city be named in his honor, hence Jamestown was born.
The Virginia
Colony was settled in a haphazard fashion. It was not until 14 years after the first
landing at Cape Henry that colonists settled in the area that is now Virginia Beach.
The slow early
growth of Virginia Beach is somewhat puzzling due to the known abundance of natural
resources available then. Besides being relatively free of Indians and the supposed threat
they posed, there was an unlimited supply of wildlife, the most fertile soil in the entire
colony, numerous deep rivers ideal for transportation and excellent accessibility to the
resources of the sea.
One of the
earliest residents of Virginia Beach was Adam Thoroughgood, who at age 18, had left the
home of his prominent family at Kings Lynn, Norfolkshire, England, to seek adventure and
fortune in the colony of Virginia. The topography reminded young Thoroughgood so much of
his homeland that he gave the river and her shores the name Lynnhaven. Thoroughgood soon
became the leading citizen in Lynnhaven Parish, and was an elected member of the House of
Burgess, the Governors Council, and a Justice of the Court.
In 1635 Captain
Thoroughgood (he held a commission in the county militia) earned a land grant of 5,350
acres in colonial Virginia Beach for having persuaded 105 people to settle in Virginia.
Interestingly, included in these 105 immigrants was Augustine Warner, progenitor of George
Washington, and generations later Robert E. Lee. During the following year, 1636,
Thouroughgood built a modest but substantial brick home for his family on the western
branch of the Lynnhaven River. This house, still standing and fully restored, is believed
to be the oldest surviving brick home in America.
Thoroughgood died
suddenly at the age of 36, but his character and ideals had been embedded in the land and
people of Lynnhaven. During the ensuing years the Lynnhaven area began to flourish under
the leadership of prominent families such as the Keeling, Cornicks, Woodhouses and
Strattons.
Because of the
abundance of fish in the Chesapeake Bay area, seine hauling was one of the early
profitable vocations taken up by the residents along the shores of the lynnhaven. At this
stage in history the only entrance into the Lynnhaven River from the Chesapeake Bay was by
way of Little Creek and was reported to be a tedious journey of three miles. It did not
take the fishermen long to realize that a shorter, faster route to the bay would greatly
enhance the profits of those associated with the fishing industry. Adam Keeling, whose
plantation, "Ye Dudlies," was situated right at the mouth of the Lynnhaven
River, organized a group of people to work out a solution for this situation.
At the mouth of
the Lynnhaven there was a huge sandbar about a half-mile wide, separating the River and
Bay. Keeling's group dug a trench across the sandbar wide enough to permit the passage of
a canoe. Almost immediately after this feat was accomplished, a severe storm out of the
northeast caused unusually high tides in the Chesapeake to rush through the ditch into the
Lynnhaven River. The force of the tides enlarged the ditch to the size of an inlet, and
today this inlet is known as the famous Lynnhaven Inlet.
