The Roads of Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads was given that name in the colonial era, to identify the location where the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth rivers flowed together and merged into the Chesapeake Bay. It was a stretch of deep, relatively-safe-from-storms water where ships "rode" at anchor. A roadway provided more shelter from storms than in the open ocean or the Chesapeake Bay, but less protection than in a harbor.

The "Hampton" part of the name refers to Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton. He was a member of the Virginia Company, and thus an investor in the efforts to establish the English colony in Virginia. Lord de la Ware, who arrived at Jamestown as the new governor in 1610, named the waterway "Hampton Roads" (rather than "Wriothesley Roads"). ¹

At that time, the name referred to just the physical feature, since of course there was no urbanized region. The English did not settle at Hampton Roads in 1607, even though fresh water and other resources were readily available for a settlement on the Peninsula, the south side of Hampton Roads, or even at Cape Henry or Cape Charles. Hampton Roads was conveniently close to the Atlantic Ocean, with the sheltered Elizabeth River harbor only 18 miles away, but that was the main reason *not* to settle there.

In Where Is Tidewater?, you learned that the English did not settle the Norfolk area first. In a time of international conflict with Spain, France, and the Netherlands, there was too great of a risk that an enemy warship could appear with minimal warning. English supply ships had to sail an extra day up the James River to reach Jamestown - and that distance would provide valuable warning time if the rival colonial powers chose to attack the new Virginia colony. The English did occupy Kecoughtan in 1610, however, and the city of Hampton now claims to be the oldest continuously-settled English city in North America.

Norfolk developed later - see the Urban Population Growth statistics to compare Richmond with Norfolk. The Peninsula and the area south of the James River/Chesapeake Bay shared the Hampton Roads waterway, but were separate and independent from each other.

Today we can drive from Washington DC to Virginia Beach in 4 hours (assuming the traffic on the interstate highways is not congested), and a weekend visit even to Nags Head is a reasonable expedition. However, it was not a casual visit to cross Hampton Roads until 1928, when the James River Bridge was built upstream at Newport News.

(Why upstream? Use your Atlas to look at the width of the James River there vs. Hampton Roads. Remember, the US military opposed a bridge that might block access to the shipyard at Newport News or the naval bases on the Elizabeth River.)

The James River Bridge carrying Route 17 across the James River to the county of Isle of Wight helped connect Richmond to Portsmouth and Norfolk. However, it was not in a particularly convenient location for residents of Hampton or Newport News to travel to Norfolk or Virginia Beach; the ferry between Hampton and Norfolk was still faster for many travelers.

Until the 1950's, there were several ferry routes. A major route went from near Fort Monroe to Willoughby Spit, and another connected the urban areas of downtown Newport News to downtown Norfolk (see 1919 map).

The James River Bridge was built about 75 years ago, but the close economic integration of Hampton/Newport News with Norfolk/Portsmouth/Virginia Beach was stimulated primarily by the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. It was constructed in 1957, nearly 30 years after the James River Bridge. Once residents of one region could commute easily to jobs across the water, the economic and cultural interests merged much faster. The first bridge-tunnel was the start of the transportation improvements that finally knitted the separate jurisdictions of the Hampton Roads area into a socio-economic region.

The Federal government recognized the integration of the region in 1983, when it merged the separate Metropolitan Statistical Areas. In 1990, the Southeastern Virginia Planning District Commission and the Peninsula Planning District Commission combined to form the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.

As the region has grown after World War Two, people have choosen to live at the periphery rather than in the core cities. Suburban sprawl has been a part of the Virginia land use pattern since automobiles and highways made transportation inexpensive and convenient. Check the Census "Quickfacts" site for Norfolk, and you can see the population there dropped by 10% between 1990-2000. Portsmouth also lost population.

In contrast, York County grew over 30% and Gloucester County population grew over 15% between 1990-2000. While people are moving to the edges and away from the core urban areas, the jobs in Hampton Roads are projected to remain centered around the Elizabeth River and the waterfront of the Peninsula:

Source: Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Commuter Toll Impact Study
page 3-17 (Figure 3.2.5)

This will generate more long-distance coimmutes and traffic jams, with a continuing demand for transportation improvements, until jobs move out to the suburban areas or people choose to live in the central city again.

One rural area near the job centers has not grown substantially in the last 50 years - the Eastern Shore. Northampton County population increased only 0.02% between 1990-2000. The distance of the drive and the cost of commuting across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel were the primary deterrents to growth on the Eastern Shore.

In 1990, only 2% of the traffic crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel were commuters.² Nearly everyone else was on a long-distance trip, bypassing the congested I-95 corridor between Richmond and Wilmington, Delaware.

On March 1, 2002, the toll structure was changed to encourage people to live on the Eastern Shore and commute to jobs in Hampton Roads. Travellers returning within 24 hours pay a total toll of just $14, rather than $20. This is not expected to affect through-trips by truckers or visits by tourists, but could stimulate over 1,300 new homes to be built in Northampton County by 2025.³ Economic benefits and environmental impacts will be concentrated in the southern half of the county, near the bridge-tunnel.

The "union" of the Peninsula and South Hampton Roads may not be permanent, however. After the November, 2002 defeat of a proposed increase in the local sales tax from 4.5% to 5.5% to finance new roads and tunnels in Hampton Roads, The Virginian-Pilot editorialized:⁴

Perhaps the most far-reaching casualty of Tuesday's vote is the evolution of Southside and Peninsula into a single community with common economic and political interests. That trend surely will be slowed, if not reversed.

It's unlikely that the Hampton Roads third crossing will be built. The state does not have the $3 billion needed to build it. Without the third crossing, the barrier between the two sides of the James will inch higher with rising traffic volumes on the Hampton Roads and Monitor-Merrimac bridge-tunnels.

When the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel overloads in five or so years, the Southside will rely much more on U.S. 460 to travel north, thus bypassing the Peninsula. As the traffic grows, more of the Peninsula will find itself gravitating into the orbit of Richmond. Already, many Williamsburg residents drive north to Richmond to shop or fly. Increasingly, the Peninsula and Southside may have competing transportation agendas, making legislative approval of either one all the more difficult. This will leave the Southside increasingly isolated and diminished.

Another clue that the "identity" of Hampton Roads is not fully united - there were two separate economic development partnerships until 2005. The Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance included Chesapeake City, Isle of Wight County, Norfolk City, Portsmouth City, Suffolk City, and Virginia Beach City. The Virginia Peninsula Alliance for Economic Development was a separate organization, and included Gloucester County, Hampton City, James City County, Newport News City, Poquoson City, Williamsburg City, and York County.

Obviously the James River separated the business communities. However, in 2005, the two organizations merged. The cost of maintaining two organizations was a factor, but so was the response of companies that were being encouraged to move to the region. As described in the 2005 annual report,⁵ "Once you get 50 miles out of Hampton Roads, no one knows the difference between the Southside, Peninsula and Western Tidewater. The investors - the private businesses - pushed this because you can take the same dollars and do far more marketing."

• If you were on the Board of Supervisors for Mathews or Northampton County, would you want to join that economic development group?

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