The Virginia Portal![]() Location of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The state's capital is Richmond. Its most populous city is Virginia Beach, though its most populous subdivision is Fairfax County. Virginia's population was over 8.68 million; slightly over a third, 35%, were in the Washington metropolitan area. The Blue Ridge Mountains cross the western and southwestern parts of the state. The state's central region lies predominantly in the Piedmont. Eastern Virginia is part of the Atlantic Plain. The Middle Peninsula forms the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Virginia's history begins with several Indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607, the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent English colony in the New World. Virginia's state nickname, the Old Dominion, is a reference to this status. Slave labor and land from displaced native tribes fueled the growing plantation economy, but also fueled conflicts both inside and outside the colony. (Full article...) Selected article![]() The area now known as Newport News was once a part of Warwick County, one of the eight original shires of Virginia. In 1881, 15 years of explosive development began under the leadership of Collis P. Huntington, whose new Peninsula Extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway from Richmond opened up transportation along the Peninsula and provided a new pathway for the railroad to bring West Virginia bituminous coal to port for coastal shipping and worldwide export. With the new railroad came a terminal and coal piers where the colliers were loaded. Within a few years, Huntington and his associates also built a large shipyard. In 1896, Newport News was incorporated as a town. In 1958, by mutual consent by referendum, Newport News was consolidated with the former Warwick County, rejoining the two localities to approximately their pre-1896 geographic size. The more widely known name of Newport News was selected as they formed what was then Virginia's third largest independent city in population. As of 2012, the city population was 183,331 ranking it as Virginia's fifth largest incorporated city by population. With many residents employed at the expansive Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding, the joint U.S. Air Force-U.S. Army installation at Joint Base Langley–Eustis, and other military bases and suppliers, the city's economy is very connected to the military, together with continued importance as a shipping hub through the Newport News Marine Terminals. Selected biography![]() Beset with health problems due to exposure in the Southwest and Dakotas, Gatewood was critically injured in the Johnson County War and retired from the Army in 1895, dying a year later from stomach cancer. Before his retirement he was nominated for the Medal of Honor, but was denied the award. He was portrayed by Jason Patric in the 1993 film Geronimo: An American Legend. This month in Virginia history![]() Lithograph depicting the crossing of the Rappahannock River during the Battle of Fredericksburg
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Selected image![]() Confederate dead along Sunken Road in Fredericksburg, Virginia after the Battle of Chancellorsville, on the exact position where months earlier the Battle of Fredericksburg was fought. Did you know -
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