from the beginning to the War of Independence

In 1619, George Yardley, the Governor-General of the Virginia Colonial Administration, founded four companies called Cittie, the foundation of the House of Colonies, in a region of development. The area later became Norfolk City was included in the area of Elizabeth City Corporation. In 1634, when Charles I reorganized the administrative division of the Virginia Colony and introduced eight Siers, Elizabeth City became Elizabeth City Siia.

Adam Salagood, who settled in Virginia in 1622 as an annual servant from King's Surin at the Norfolk County of England, became a leader citizen of this colony, which is still very short of history, when the contract period expires and the people are set free. In 1636, Saragod persuaded 105 people to settle in the colony and was given extensive land along the Lincoln River. In the same year, when a region called South Hampton Rose, the south of Hampton Rose, of Elizabeth City Shire, was divided into counties, Salagod named the county New Norfolk County after his birthplace, Norfolk County. In the following year, 1637, New Norfolk County was divided into Upper Norfolk County and Lower Norfolk County on the advice of Salagood.

the mark of a shell fired by Dunmore that still remains on the wall of the Church of St. Paul

In the latter half of the 17th century, a fort of "Half Moon" was built, and Norfolk grew by obtaining 50 acres (about 202,000m²) of land in exchange for 10,000 pounds (about 4,500kg) of tobacco. In 1680, the Colony Council established Lower Norfolk County, the foundation of today's Norfolk. In 1691, Lower Norfolk County was divided into Norfolk County (present Norfolk, Chesapeake, and part of Portsmouth) and Princess Ann County (present Virginia Beach). In 1736, under the imperial edict of George II, Norfolk was incorporated as a formal town (Borough).

By 1775, Norfolk was the most developed city in the Virginia colony. Norfolk was an important port to export goods to England and beyond. The merchants were connected to the British Empire, so the royalists had a strong influence in Norfolk when the War of Independence was not going to start. The then Governor-General of the Virginia Colony, Count Dunmore, escaped from the colonial capital Williamsburg to Norfolk to rebuild the system. Danmore won a small victory at Norfolk, but he was soon driven out of the colony by the Patriot led by Colonel William Woodford. The banishment of Danmore ended the 168-year rule of Britain in Virginia.

On New Year's Day in 1776, the three-fleet of Danmore bombed the city of Norfolk for more than eight hours. In addition to the bombing, the British army set fire to the fire and the Patriot spread the fire, destroying more than 2/3,800 buildings in the city of Norfolk. In February of the same year, for strategic reasons, he destroyed the building in which Patriot remained. Only the St. Paul's Church wall remained.

Civil War

Battle of Hampton Rose

Although Norfolk was restored after it was burned down in the War of Independence, it was further unfortunate in the early 19th century. In 1804, the great fire at the waterfront in Norfolk burned down 300 buildings, and Norfolk suffered a great financial loss. In the 1820s, rural areas in the south were hit by recession and many farmers moved to other areas. Many moved west of the Piedmont plateau, or to Kentucky and Tennessee. In this area, the decline in the land strength caused by the continuous production of tobacco also caused the outflow of farmers.

At this time, Virginia made various attempts to break its slavery, turn it into law or return to Africa. Black people from both Virginia and North Carolina took the ship back from Norfolk to Africa. Joseph Jenkins Roberts, who was born and raised as a Free Black in Norfolk, moved to Liberia and became the country's first president.

In 1861, the voters in Norfolk ratified the Ordinance Leaving the Union. Soon, Virginia left the Commonwealth. In the spring of the following year, 1862, the Battle of Hampton Rose broke out in the northwest of the city on the coast of Sewells Point. The battle was the first battle between armored warships in the world, and two armored warships of the United States Navy and the Allied Navy, Virginia, fought against each other. This battle ended in a draw, but the superiority of an armored warship over the conventional wooden warship was proved, and after that all warships were made of metal. However, in May of the same year, the Southern Army led by General Benjamin Heuger set fire to the Gosport shipyard and retreated from Norfolk, and the Mayor, William Ram, surrendered to the Northern Army led by General John E. Wool, and surrendered the city. The city was placed under martial law until the Civil War ended.

Naval Base, Highway, Racial Integration

James Town Exposition

In 1907, the James Town Exhibition was held at Sewells Point to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the James Town settlement. A large-scale military parade by the Navy was held at the exhibition to show the good conditions for the location of the Sewells Point. Ten years later, in 1917 during World War I, a Norfolk Naval Base was established at the site of the site of the site of the site of the site of the James Town Exhibition.

After World War II, with the introduction of interstate expressways, expressway networks were developed in Norfolk and its surroundings. In 1952, the downtown tunnel, which ran through the bottom of the Elizabeth River and connected Norfolk and Portsmouth, was completed, and then over the next 15 years, the roads connecting Norfolk, the Virginia Beach, and the Virginia Peninsula on the other side of the Hampton Rose were opened one after another. In 1957, the Hampton Rose Bridge Tunnel, which crosses the bridge and the undersea tunnel between Norfolk and Hampton, the Hampton Rose Bridge Tunnel, which crossed the Elizabeth River in the north of the downtown tunnel, in 1962, the Midtown Tunnel, which connects the Gento area of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and the Virginia Beach Norfolk Expressway in 1967, respectively, were opened. After that, the road network in the Hampton Rose area continued to be developed, and in 1989, the downtown tunnel became four-lane, and in 1991, the Berkeley Bridge, the jumping-off bridge that crossed the Elizabeth River East Branch, became eight-lane. In 1992, the Monitor Merrimack Memorial Bridge Tunnel, which crossed Hampton Rose on the west side of the Hampton Rose Bridge Tunnel and connected Portsmouth and Newport News, was opened, and the Hampton Rose Loop Line, which surrounded the outskirts of Norfolk Portsmouth and Newport News, was completed.

In 1954, when the Federal Supreme Court ruled in the Brown Education Committee trial that segregation in schools was unconstitutional and ordered racial integration, Virginia issued a state law called "Massive Resistance" in opposition to that. The Virginia State Council banned the distribution of the budget to a racially integrated public school. On the other hand, a private school in Norfolk supported the Brownian ruling and moved on to racial integration. In 1958, the Virginia Federal District Court ordered the school to be opened with racial integration, while the Virginia Governor James Lindsay Almond Jr. ordered the school to be closed. This closed six schools in Norfolk, leaving about 10,000 children and students defeated. The Virginia Supreme Court found Massive Resistance to violate the state constitution and ordered all schools to distribute the budget whether or not race is integrated. Ten days later, Almond stopped resisting and called on the state legislature to withdraw a Massive Resistance bill. In September of the following year, 1959, 17 African-American children entered a public school in Norfolk City, where segregation had been taking place. Lenore Chambers, editor of the Virginia Pilot, a local newspaper in Norfolk, published an editorial against Massive Resistance and won the Pulitzer Prize in the editorial department.

In the first half of the 20th century, Norfolk expanded the city by merging. In 1906, Norfolk merged Berkeley Town on the south bank of the Elizabeth River East branch. In 1923, the Sewells Point and the Ocean View District were merged to include the Norfolk Naval Base and the beaches of the Chesapeake Gulf. In 1955, the merger of Taners Creek led Norfolk to 297,253, the largest population in Virginia. However, the white middle class flowed out of the city due to racial integration and the development of residential areas in the suburbs (White Flight), and the Norfolk population declined after counting 307,951 in 1970. Also, from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, large-scale shopping centers and malls were opened along the expressways in the suburbs, and the commercial district along Granby Street in the downtown area, which had been crowded until then, was deserted.

regeneration

In the 1980s, city leaders began to work on the revitalization of the inner city of Norfolk. Focusing on the devastated waterfront, they destroyed many old shipping facilities and warehouses and built a main street called Waterside Drive on the site. Along this main street, many high rise buildings were built to form today's Norfolk skyline.

In 1983, the city and Raws Company built a mall called Waterside on the Elizabeth River to attract people to the waterfront and to encourage further downtown redevelopment. In 1993, the Harbor Park, the home of the local minor league team Norfolk Size, was completed. In 1994, the Maritime Museum called Nautica was also opened.

As the redevelopment progresses, downtown areas have come back to life, new offices, retail stores, entertainment facilities and hotels have been built, and housing that is close to home. In the 2000s, the population also increased. In the 2010 population census, the population increased to 242,803, about 3.6%, compared with the 2000 population census.

Hampton Rose Metropolitan Area
Red: Virginia Beach Norfolk Newport News metropolitan area
Red + Yellow: Virginia Beach Norfolk Metropolitan Area

Norfolk is located at 36 degrees 50 minutes 43 seconds north latitude and 76 degrees 17 minutes 9 seconds west longitude. The city is located in the southeastern part of Virginia, about 250km southeast from the capital Washington D.C. and about 135km southeast from the capital Richmond.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Norfolk City has a total area of 249.4km² (96.3 mi²). 139.2km² (53.7mi²) is land and 110.3km² (42.6mi²) is water area. The area accounts for 44.22% of the total area.

The city stretches to the south bank of the port called Hampton Rose, a natural good port formed at the mouth of the James River which flows into Chesapeake Bay. Virginia Beach to the east of Norfolk, Chesapeake to the south, Portsmouth to the west, Suffolk to the southwest and Newport News and Hampton to the north bank of Hampton Rose are all listed. the Hampton Rose Metropolitan Area (formally named: Virginia Beach Norfolk Newport News Area) spans seven cities around the Hampton Rose, including Pocos northeast Hampton, Williamsburg northwest of Newport News, 10 cities and nine counties with Franklin west of Suffolk. Three counties of North Carolina are added to the metropolitan area. With the largest population of Virginia Beach, the official names of urban areas and metropolitan areas are prefixed by the name of Virginia Beach at the beginning, but in fact, the city that is the center of the urban area is Norfolk.

climate

The climate of Norfolk is generally mild throughout the year, and the summer is sultry and hot and marine. The hottest month is July, with an average monthly temperature of 26°C and an average high temperature of 31°C, it is not unusual for daytime highs to exceed 32°C. In winter, the temperature is warm, and even in the coldest January, the average monthly temperature is 6°C, and the average minimum temperature is 0°C. The precipitation is expected to be mostly in June and September, reaching 100-150mm a month, while the rest of the month is average at about 70-90mm a month. Annual rainfall is about 1,210mm. Hurricanes often pass the sea near Norfolk from summer to autumn, but rarely land. In the climate division of Keppen, Norfolk belongs to the warm wet climate (Cfa) which is widely distributed on the Atlantic coast and southern part of the United States.

City Overview and Architecture

Dominion Tower

Downtown stretches out in the southwestern part of the city. Because Norfolk is located on a complicated terrain, it is different from many other cities in the United States, and the streets are mixed not only in residential areas but also in downtown areas. The private port facilities are concentrated in the northwest, east and south of the downtown area, along with Hampton Rose on the bank of the Elizabeth River, part of the coastal channel. There are also many port facilities on the other side of the Elizabeth River in Portsmouth. The Norfolk Naval Base is located in the northwestern part of the city at Sewells Point, which juts out to the Hampton Rose. In the northeastern part of the city, on the Chesapeake Bay side, there is a smooth sandy beach coastline different from the Elizabeth River and the residential area is spreading.

In Norfolk, which has a long history, there are many buildings of various architectural styles. In the early days of Norfolk, many wooden houses with large chimneys and thatched roofs, similar to those of British houses in the medieval period, were built. When the lot was developed for the first time in 1682, Georgia-style buildings often seen in the southern part of the late 17th century stood side by side. After the city was burned down in the War of Independence, the reconstructed Norfolk were lined with Federal buildings. The Federal-style row house, built around this time, hardly remains in the present Norfolk.

In the 19th century, the streets of Norfolk were lined with buildings based on the Federal Style, with the addition of elements of neoclassical architecture, such as the Portico pillar order and the motif of the classical architecture on doors and windows. The entrance of the Federal-style Row House was equipped with an ancient Greek porch, and the elements of ancient Greek and Roman architecture were added to public buildings such as the Old City Hall, the Old Norfolk Academy, and the Customs. However, in the 1830s, the number of Gothic and Revival style buildings was increasing instead of Neoclassical architecture being hidden.

From the latter half of the 19th century to the 20th century, high rise buildings began to be built in the streets of Norfolk. The existing early high rise buildings include the 12-story Roister Building, 48.7m tall, built in 1912 in downtown. In Norfolk in the first half of the 20th century, Art Deco-style buildings also stood side by side. The existing Art Deco-style buildings include the downtown post office building. However, it was after the late 1960s that high rise buildings were built in earnest on Norfolk. The tallest building in Norfolk today is the 26-story Dominion Tower, which was built in 1987, and has a height of 103.6m.

All cities in Virginia, including Norfolk, are independent under state law. Therefore, Norfolk is a city, and at the same time it is a municipality corresponding to a county, and administrative services equivalent to a county are provided, and as with the location of a county, a district court of the state is established. Norfolk has a state district court and one of the federal district courts to the east of Virginia.

Norfolk adopts the City Manager system. The City Manager, the chief executive officer of the city's administration, is elected by the city council. The City Manager has the authority and responsibility to visually confirm the enforcement of the law and regulations, to supervise administrative organs and departments, to prepare the budget, and to track the financial situation. City managers are required to participate in the city assembly, but do not have the right to vote. On the other hand, the mayor plays a role as a 'face of the city' and plays a role exclusively as a ritual. The city assembly consists of seven members, and one member is elected from the five "constituencies" that divided the city into five, and one member is elected from the "super electoral districts" that divided the city into two separate constituencies. There are no duplicate candidates for mayor and city council members, candidates for two or more constituencies, and duplicate candidates for the constituencies and the super constituencies.

In the House of Representatives election, Norfolk runs through the second and third districts of Virginia, with the northern half of the city in the second district along with Virginia Beach, and the southern half of the city, including downtown, belongs to the third district along with Portsmouth and Newport News. The Republican power is rather strong in the second district, but the Democratic power is very strong in the third district.

John F. Kennedy, the Aircraft Carrier at the Norfolk Naval Base

naval port

Norfolk is the center of the military, and it is an important place especially for the United States Navy. Located at Sewell's Point in the northwestern part of the city, at Hampton Rose, the Norfolk Naval Base is the largest naval base in the world with 14 wharves and 15 hangers on a total area of 4,631 acres (about 18.74km²), and 78 ships and 133 fighter jets are the ports of origin. The base has a command of the Fleet Army, the Marines General, and the Revolutionary Allied Forces of NATO. The Langley Air Force Base, situated in Hampton Rose on the other side of the Hampton Rose, has a command-line unit. Throughout the Hampton Rose metropolitan area, the Navy personnel and Marines stationed there are 108,000, the Navy alone employs 41,000 civilians, and 23,000 veterans live there.

The Norfolk and Hampton Rose Metropolitan Areas, which are the cities of the Navy, are the mecca of the munitions industry, especially the shipbuilding industry. On the other side of the Elizabeth River, Portsmouth, there is Norfolk Naval Shipyard, the largest and longest-running Navy. On the other side of the Hampton Rose, Newport News Corp is home to Newport News Shipyard, the only shipyard in the United States to build a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. The North American corporation of BAE Systems, the world's largest munitions industry, has its headquarters in Norfolk in the repair department.

The Department of Defense spending in the region was almost double as in 2000 in 2010, reaching $20 billion a year. Over three-quarters of the amount of regional economic growth during the decade of the 2000s in the Hampton Rose Metropolitan Area accounted for an increase in Pentagon spending. Due to the increase in spending by the Department of Defense, even in the recession after the Lehman shock, the unemployment rate in the Hampton Rose area was two points lower than the U.S. average.

commercial port

Norfolk International Terminal

In the Norfolk and Hampton Rose urban areas, the ship's freight is the most important one than the military in terms of its impact on the local economy. The Virginia Port Authority (VPA), headquartered in Norfolk, has three terminals in the Hampton Rose metropolitan area including the Norfolk International Terminal, the Portsmouth Shipping Terminal and the Newport News Shipping Terminal, which handle both bulk cargo and container cargo. The largest of the three terminals is the Norfolk International Terminal located just south of the Norfolk Naval Base. The container terminal is equipped with 14 gantry cranes of 245 feet (about 74.7m), one of the world's largest hoisting ranges, and can correspond to a container ship having the width of 27 rows of containers. The water channel from the Chesapeake Bay to the terminal is kept at a depth of 50 feet (about 15.2m). When all three port facilities under the jurisdiction of VPA were combined, the total cargo handling in 2010 was 1.9 million TEU (import 1 million TEU, export 900,000 TEU) and bulk cargo of 230,000 tons, the second largest after New Jersey and Savannah ports on the Atlantic coast.

In addition to these three terminals, the APM terminal was completed in Portsmouth in August 2007. The terminal is the largest container terminal owned by a private company in North America and has six gantry cranes and can handle one million TEU container cargo. In July 2010, VPA gained control of the terminal under a 20-year lease contract.

The Lamberts Point Wharf, located in the south of the Norfolk International Terminal and to the southwest of the campus of Old Dominion University, is the largest coal port in the northern hemisphere. The briquettes produced in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky are brought together by rail at the wharf and loaded onto ships. The amount of coal loaded from this wharf to the domestic and foreign countries reaches 48 million tons a year.

From its status as a port of commerce, especially as a container port, many shipping companies have bases for operations, distribution and logistics in Norfolk. Norfolk is the world's largest shipping company, A.P. The North American headquarters include Mark Line, the United States corporation of Morah Maersk, as well as CMA CGM in France and ZIM in Israel. Many of these shipping companies have offices in downtown World Trade Center Norfolk and Lake Light Executive Center near Norfolk International Airport.

Half Moon Cruise and Celebration Center

tourism industry

The tourism industry in the Hampton Rose metropolitan area has been developed mainly by Virginia Beach and Williamsburg for a long time. In Norfolk, the downtown area has been reclaimed and the cruising dock has been laid out, making the tourism industry more prosperous. In April 2007, the Half-Moon Cruise and Celebration Center, a cruise ship terminal that the city and VPA invested $36 million to build, was completed next to Cruise Ship Dock. The terminal is home to Royal Caribbean International, the world's second cruise company. The convenient downtown terminal is highly appreciated by both tourists and cruise ship companies. In 2009, Norfolk was ranked second in the list of passengers, the highest in the United States and the highest in the world.

Other industries

In addition to the munitions industry, shipping industry and tourism industry, various industries are also found in the Norfolk and Hampton Rose metropolitan areas. Within the Hampton Rose metropolitan area, four companies operating in Fortune 500 have their headquarters.

Among the major companies headquartered in Norfolk, the Norfolk Southern Railway is the Dominion Enterprises of the publishing industry, the FHC Health Systems of Behavioral and Psychiatric Services, the Portfolio Recovery Associates of Credit Recovery, and the Black Hawk Products Group of various garments, including the Army, Police, Security Guard and Outdoor, among others. Ford also set up a factory in Norfolk from 1925 to 2007 to produce model T-sedans, station wagons and F-150 pickup trucks.

I-64 Hampton Rose Bridge Tunnel

The airport, which serves as the gateway to the Hampton Rose Metropolitan Area including Norfolk, is located just inside the city's north-east border of about 5.5km, Virginia Beach, at IATA: ORF). The airport is manned by the four major airlines (Delta Air, American Airlines, United Airlines, Inc.), US Airways and Southwest Airlines, both of which have direct flights to 21 cities and 25 airports. IATA: PHF) is equipped with Delta Air Lines to Atlanta and US Airways to Charlotte, which complement Norfolk International Airport as the second airport in the Hampton Rose Metropolitan Area.

The interstate expressway I-64, which connects the Hampton Rose metropolitan area, the capital of Richmond, and the eastern foot of the Appalachian Mountains and traverses Virginia east and west, forms a network of expressways as a circular line or radiation around Norfolk, along with four branch lines (I-264, I-464, I-564, I-664) in the Hampton Rose urban area. The I-64 Main Line crosses the Hampton Rose Bridge Tunnel from Hampton to the Hampton Rose Bridge Tunnel and forms the east and south sides of the Hampton Rose Loop Line. I-664 branches off at Hampton to the I-64 Main Line, passes through downtown Newport News, crosses Hampton Rose at the Monitor Merrimack Memorial Bridge Tunnel and forms the west side of the Hampton Rose Loop Line. I-264 crosses the center of the Hampton Rose Loop Line, goes through downtown Norfolk, and goes east to Virginia Beach. I-464 runs south from downtown Norfolk to Chesapeake. After passing the junction with I-64, the Virginia Route 168 remains the expressway standard, running across the Chesapeake area to the border with North Carolina. The entire line of the I-564 is located in Norfolk City, and branches off the I-64 Main Line and reaches the Norfolk Naval Base. Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, a 17.6-mile (about 28.3km) long Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel linking Norfolk Virginia Beach and the Delmarba Peninsula, is also located in the bay.

Tide (light rail)

The Greyhound bus terminal is located in the north of the downtown area near Scope Arena (see below), where medium- and long-distance buses bound for Richmond and Laurie arrive and depart. At Newport News Station, Amtrak's station is located, and local trains arrive at and depart from the north-east corridor towards Richmond Washington D.C., Baltimore Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston. From Newport News Station, Amtrack Bus runs on Virginia Beach via Norfolk.

The main public transport service within the Hampton Rose metropolitan area is the route bus operated by Hampton Rose Transport Co. (HRT). The HRT bus network covers seven cities in the Hampton Rose Metropolitan Area, mainly Norfolk, and also connects to Williamsburg. HRT also operates a ferry that crosses the Elizabeth River between downtown Norfolk and the Old Town in Portsmouth. In addition, in August 2011, the HRT light rail called Tide started its operation. The light rail crosses the downtown from the East Virginia Medical Center, located northwest of the downtown area, and runs 7.4 miles (11.9 km) to the New Town Road near the city's border with Virginia Beach.

Central Norfolk General Hospital

The East Virginia Medical Center, consisting of East Virginia Medical School, Centra Norfolk General Hospital, Central Heart Hospital, and Kings Doters Children's Hospital, is located in the Gento area, northwest of downtown. The East Virginia Medical School was a medical school that opened in 1973 at the request of the local community where there were no medical training schools until the 1960s. All three hospitals located in the East Virginia Medical Center are central medical facilities in the area as well as educational, research and training facilities at the East Virginia Medical School.

The Central Norfolk General Hospital began with a small 25-bed hospital set up downtown in 1888, and is now a general hospital with 525 beds. The hospital, with multiple hospitals in the Hampton Rose area and the central health care system, is the only Level I trauma center in the Hampton Rose area that can provide 24-hour first aid to severely injured patients. In 1981, a newborn baby was born in the hospital through in vitro fertilization for the first time in hospitals across the United States. Central Cardiac Hospital, as its name suggests, is specialized in cardiology and cardiology and surgery and provides advanced, comprehensive treatments ranging from diagnosis to open heart surgery and heart transplantation. The U.S. News & World Report Hospital's ranking heart department has always been one of the highest in the United States. The Kings Doters Children's Hospital was established in 1961 to specialize in pediatrics, and is the only hospital in Virginia that has only 43 pediatric hospitals across the country.

Old Dominion University

Three four-year universities are located in Norfolk. The Old Dominion University has a campus of 188 acres (about 760,000m²) about 5 km northwest from downtown. The school was established as the Norfolk Branch of William and Mary University in 1930 and separated and became independent in 1962. Today, Doshisha University has 68 departments, 55 graduate master's programs, and 41 doctoral programs, with about 18,000 undergraduate and 6,000 graduate students. The school also has an Army Reserve Officer Training Course (ROTC), and it also has a Hampton Rose Naval Reserve Officer Training Course (NROTC) along with Norfolk State University and Hampton University. The Norfolk State University, whose campus is to the east of downtown, is a state-run Mid-size University, established in 1935, and has an emphasis on liberal arts. The university was originally founded to give African-American opportunities for higher education, and even today, when the ethnicity was introduced, more than 80% of the students are African-American. Virginia Weslian University, a Methodist-American Liberal Arts College established in 1961, has about 1,400 students at its 300-acre campus (about 1,200,000m²) across Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

The K-12 program in Norfolk is supported by public schools under the jurisdiction of the Norfolk Public School District. The school district has 35 elementary schools, nine junior high schools and five high schools (one of which has an evening club). There are also some private schools in Norfolk. The longest tradition among these is the Norfolk Academy, which was established in 1728. The school has 64 acres (about 260,000m²) of land next to Virginia Wesleyan University in the eastern part of the city, and has about 1,200 children and students from first to twelfth grade and has integrated elementary and junior high and high school education. Also, the school building of the school, which was built in the Green Revival style in 1840, is designated as a National Register of Historic Places.

The Norfolk Public Library has 10 libraries in the city as well as the Norfolk Main Library, which is located downtown. Since the library system was set up as the first public library system in Virginia in 1904, it has been used for the storage of documents by the city government in addition to literacy education by all generations, and the materials that have been collected and stored go back to the 19th century.

cultural facilities and arts

Notikas and Battleship Wisconsin

The National Marine Center, Notikas, opened in 1994, is located on the Elizabeth River in downtown. The museum mainly exhibits displays hand-learned exhibits on navy, warships and weather. The theater of the museum also shows a military parade of the Navy at the James Town Exhibition and a video of the design of the battleships. The museum also has a simulation game corner where visitors can experience the modern navy in imitation, and an aquarium houses marine life such as horseradish, starfish, adhikari and sea urchin living in Chesapeake Bay. A battleship Wisconsin, who was active in World War II (Pacific War), the Korean War and the Gulf War, was moored at the docks adjacent to Nautica and is preserved as a memorial ship. The second floor of the Nautikas is the Hampton Rose Naval Museum, which exhibits things about the history of the Navy. Next to Nautica, there are Half-Moon Cruise and Celebration Center and Cruise Dock.

MacArthur Museum

About 400m east of Nautica and Douglas MacArthur Square in downtown MacArthur is situated in the Douglas MacArthur Memorial Museum, which retains the 19th century city hall. The museum has a tomb for Mr. and Mrs. MacArthur, a museum and a library. The museum exhibits not only military-related items, but also many private items such as corn pipes, which were the trademark of MacArthur. Japanese crafts brought back by MacArthur, such as Imari, Kutani, Satsuma's porcelain, and the Wired Shippo, are also on display. The building has been designated as a national historic property as 'the former Norfolk City Hall.' A bronze statue of MacArthur stands in front of the memorial hall.

Chrysler Museum of Art

The Chrysler Museum in the Gento area is one of the best museums in the southern part as well as the Norfolk and Hampton Rose metropolitan areas. The museum has a collection of about 30,000 items in various fields including American paintings and sculptures, European paintings and sculptures, modern art, decorative arts, glass crafts, and photographs, all over the period from ancient times to the present. Works from Latin America and Islam in Africa, Asia, and the First Columbus era are also on display. The museum was originally opened as the Norfolk Museum of Art and Science in 1933, but in 1971 it was donated by Walter P. Chrysler Jr., the son of Walter Chrysler, the car king, and became the current name with a large number of works of art.

The Hermitage Foundation Museum is located in the northwestern part of the city near the Norfolk Naval Base and the Norfolk International Terminal. The museum was built in the early 20th century and converted to a museum a mansion of the Sloan family named Hermitage, which meant a "house of refuge." The collection of the museum was left by Mr. and Mrs. Sloane, with 2,800 items including ancient Chinese bronze statues, Indian bronze statues of the Cholla Dynasty, Spanish icons and furniture, European earthenware and paintings, German stained glass, and American paintings and sculptures. The 12 acres (about 48,600m²) of the Hall have a circular garden, forest and wetland, and various flowers and trees are planted on the site, and wild birds are also flying.

Harrison Opera House

Virginia Opera is based in the Harrison Opera House in the Gento area. The Opera Company was formed in Norfolk in 1974, and later established a branch in Richmond and Fairfax (in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.), but half of the 32 performances are still performed in Norfolk a year. The Virginia Stage Company, a Norfolk theater established in 1968, performs at the downtown Wells Theater and shares the facility with the Governors School of Arts. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra, established in 1920, performs classical music, as well as concerts for pop music and families. The group will also perform at Virginia Beach, Newport News and Williamsburg, as well as Chrysler Hall, located north of downtown and on the grounds of Norfolk Scope.

sport

Harbor Park

There are no teams of the four major professional sports in Norfolk, but there are several teams in the lower league. Norfolk Times, a minor league team under the MLB's Baltimore Orioles, belongs to the AAA-class International League South Area. The company's main base is Harbor Park, which is located on the Elizabeth River East Stream. The Tie has won five league titles so far and won the AAA class in 1983. Tsuyoshi SHINJO, Kazuhisa ISHII and Shingo TAKATSU were also registered. The Norfolk Admirals, owned by NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning, belong to the East Conference Area of the American Hockey League. The Admirals plays home games at the Norfolk Scope Arena, a multi-purpose arena located north of the downtown area.

Back in 1970 and 1976, Norfolk was home to Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association (ABA). The Squires played home games in Hampton, Richmond, and Lower Norfolk, in addition to the two Norfolk Scope Arena and the Old Dominion University Field House. However, when the league disappeared in May 1976, the team also disbanded.

The Old Dominion University and the Norfolk State University belong to Division I of NCAA and the Virginia Weslian University of NCAA, respectively. Among them, the Old Dominion University's women's basketball team, Lady Monarks, is counted among the most powerful men, and has won a championship at the conference, and has won three national titles.

On June 9, 1977, the NWA North-American Tag Team Game, the team of king team Tiger Jet Shin, Umanosuke UEDA vs. the challenger team Seiji SAKAGUCHI and Strong Kobayashi were held at the scope, and Sakaguchi beat the referee and lost the foul.

In the latter half of the 1980s, Rikidozan's biggest wrestler in the 20th century, 'Tetsujin' Lu Tease, opened the Virginia Wrestling Academy, commonly known as Lu Tese Dojo, and led the younger trainees, including Sede Zinias, Futabaguro (Mitsuji KITAO), a former grand sumo yokozuna (sumo wrestler), Masahiro CHONO, and Kiji TAMURA from Japan. In the Scope Colosseum, professional wrestling groups NWA, WCW, WWE frequently held competitions, and PPVs for the United States were also held.

Parks and recreation

autumn Virginia wine festival at Town Point Park

Many events are held at the Town Point Park, which stretches along the Elizabeth River, just south of the southwestern edge of the downtown, Nautica and Half-Moon Cruise and Celebration Center. In particular, the Haberfest held every June is the largest event in the Hampton Rose Metropolitan Area. For three days during the event, the park has a row of food stalls selling various kinds of food, such as local dishes such as Chesapeake Bay, local sea crabs, shrimp, oysters, and scallops, local dishes such as club cakes in Maryland, barbecue in North Carolina, and T-shirts, and on the special stage there are concerts. In the parade of Sail, one of the Harbor Festival events, large and small ships, warships, yachts, and so on, cross the Elizabeth River. On the Saturday night of the second day, fireworks are set off from the barges floating on the Elizabeth River.

In addition to the Harbor Festival, Town Point Park holds the Bayeux Bougarou and Cajun Food Festival (late June), the Independence Day, the Norfolk Jazz Festival (late July), the Norfolk Latino Music Festival (late August), the Opera in the Park Concert (sponsored by Virginia Opera in September), and the Virginia Wine Festival (spring: May, Fall: in October).

Norfolk Botanical Garden

Norfolk Botanical Gardens have 155 acres (about 627,000m²) of land in the northeastern part of the city and northwest of Norfolk International Airport, and 30 gardens are arranged along the theme. Especially in the collection of azalea, camellia, rose, and rhododendron, the garden is one of the best in the Atlantic coast of the United States. 95 kinds of wild birds fly to the park and 30 kinds of butterflies gather there.

Virginia Zoo is located in Lafayette Park on the Lafayette River, southeast of Old Dominion University. The park has 53 acres (about 214,000m²) of land and has 400 species of animals including African elephants, bongo, mandrill, red pandas, white rhinoceros, yellow-necked clapper, and black-crowned eagles. The park also grows a wide variety of plants including roses, herbs, tropical plants and African vegetables.

In the northeastern part of the city, the Ocean View Area on the Chesapeake Bay stretches three beaches managed by the city. In one of these locations, the Ocean View Beach Park plays Big Band every Sunday from late May to early September.

urban population

The population of each independent city and county that forms the urban area of Norfolk is as follows (National Census of 2010).

Virginia Beach Norfolk Newport News metropolitan area

Virginia Beach Norfolk Metropolitan Area

urban population transition

Below is a chart and chart showing the population transition from 1790 to 2010 in Norfolk City.

Norfolk is affiliated with the following ten cities. Like Norfolk, many of them have developed as a port city and a military city around a military port.

• Wilhelm Shafen, Germany
• Cagayan de Oro (Philippines)
• Karachi (Pakistan)
• Kaliningrad (Russia)
• Kitakyushu City (Japan) - Established a sister-city relationship with Moji City (present-day Moji Ward) from 1959, before the merger of five cities.
• Coach (India)
• Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Toulon, France
• Norfolk, UK
• Halifax, Canada

• People's Association for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) - Headquarters in Norfolk.

• City of Norfolk - Official City Site
• Norfolk Convention and Visitor's Bureau
• Downtown Norfolk Council
• Norfolk Sheriff's Office
• Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance
• Norfolk Historical Society
• Norfolk, Virginia - City-Data.com
• Norfolk, VA - Yahoo!Map Map