Chesapeake, Virginia, United States

History | Geography | Environment | Adjacent counties and cities | Communities | Economy : Top employers | Military | Points of interest | Media | Toll road | Transport : Air | River and ports | Transport : Rail : Road : Bus | Utilities

🇺🇸 Chesapeake is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the second-most populous city in Virginia, the tenth-largest in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 90th-most populous city in the United States.

Chesapeake is included in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. One of the cities in the South Hampton Roads, Chesapeake was organized in 1963 by voter referendums approving the political consolidation of the city of South Norfolk with the remnants of the former Norfolk County, which dated to 1691. (Much of the territory of the county had been annexed by other cities.) Chesapeake is the second-largest city by land area in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the 17th-largest in the United States.

Chesapeake is a diverse city in which a few urban areas are located; it also has many square miles of protected farmland, forests, and wetlands, including a substantial portion of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Extending from the rural border with North Carolina to the harbor area of Hampton Roads adjacent to the cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach, Chesapeake is located on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. It has miles of waterfront industrial, commercial and residential property. In 2011, Chesapeake was named the 21st best city in the United States by Bloomberg Businessweek. Chesapeake is home to the international headquarters of Dollar Tree.

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History In 1963, the new independent city of Chesapeake was created when the former independent city of South Norfolk consolidated with Norfolk County. The consolidation was approved and the new name selected by the voters of each community by referendum, and authorized by the Virginia General Assembly.

Formed in 1691 in the Virginia Colony, Norfolk County had originally included essentially all the area which became the towns and later cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and South Norfolk. Its area was reduced after 1871 as these cities added territory through annexations. Becoming an independent city was a method for the former county to stabilize borders with neighbors, as cities could not annex territory from each other.

The relatively small city of South Norfolk had become an incorporated town within Norfolk County in 1919, and became an independent city in 1922. Its residents wanted to make a change to put their jurisdiction on a more equal footing in other aspects with the much larger cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth. In addition, by the late 1950s, although immune from annexation by the bigger cities, South Norfolk was close to losing all the county land adjoining it to the city of Norfolk in another annexation suit.

The consolidation that resulted in the city of Chesapeake was part of a wave of changes in the structure of local government in south-eastern Virginia which took place between 1952 and 1975.

The Chesapeake region was among the first areas settled in the state's colonial era, when settlement started from the coast. Along Chesapeake's segment of the Intracoastal Waterway, where the Great Bridge locks marks the transition between the Southern Branch Elizabeth River and the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal, lies the site of the Battle of Great Bridge. Fought on December 9, 1775, in the early days of the American Revolutionary War, the battle resulted in the removal of Lord Dunmore and all vestiges of English Government from the Colony and Dominion of Virginia.

Until the late 1980s and early 1990s, much of Chesapeake was either suburban or rural, serving as a bedroom community of the adjacent cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach with residents commuting to these locations. Beginning in the late 1980s and accelerating in the 1990s, however, Chesapeake saw significant growth, attracting numerous and significant industries and businesses of its own. This explosive growth quickly led to strains on the municipal infrastructure, ranging from intrusion of saltwater into the city's water supply to congested roads and schools.

Chesapeake made national headlines in 2003 when, under a court-ordered change of venue, the community hosted the first trial of alleged Beltway sniper Lee Boyd Malvo for shootings in 2002. A jury convicted him of murder but spared him a potential death sentence; it chose a sentence of "life in prison without parole" for the young man, who was 17 years old at the time of the crime spree. A jury in neighboring Virginia Beach convicted his older partner John Allen Muhammad and sentenced him to death for another of the attacks.

On November 22, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in a Walmart off of Battlefield Boulevard in Chesapeake. Seven people were killed, including the gunman who committed suicide, and four others were injured.

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Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 351 square miles (910 km²), of which 341 square miles (880 km²) is land and 10 square miles (26 km²) (2.9%) is water.

The north-eastern part of the Great Dismal Swamp is located in Chesapeake.

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Environment Chesapeake is one of the larger cities in Virginia and the nation in terms of land area. This poses challenges to city leaders in supporting infrastructure to serve this area. In addition, the city has many historically and geographically distinct communities. City leaders are faced with conflicts between development of residential, commercial and industrial areas and preservation of virgin forest and wetlands. Within the city limits in the south-western section is a large portion of the Great Dismal Swamp.

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Adjacent counties and cities • Portsmouth, Virginia (north) • Norfolk, Virginia (north) • Virginia Beach, Virginia (east) • Currituck County, North Carolina (south) • Camden County, North Carolina (south) • Suffolk, Virginia (west).

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Communities Chesapeake consists of six boroughs: South Norfolk, Butt Road, Deep Creek, Pleasant Grove, Western Branch and Washington. One of the boroughs, South Norfolk, used to be its own independent city and consolidated the surrounding portions of Norfolk County(extinct) into the City of Chesapeake.

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Economy: Top employers According to Chesapeake's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and other sources (as indicated), the top employers in the city include: 1 Chesapeake City Public Schools; 2 City of Chesapeake; 3 Chesapeake Regional Medical Center; 4 Walmart; 5 Dollar Tree; 6 Sentara Healthcare; 7 Cox Communications; 8 Tidewater Staffing; 9 Capital One Services LLC; 10 QVC; 11 Food Lion; 10 USAA; 11 YMCA of South Hampton Roads; 14 General Dynamics Information Technology; 12 Commonwealth of Virginia; 13 Home Depot USA, Inc.; 15 Oceaneering International; 16 Xerox HR Solutions, LLC; 17 US Department of Homeland Security; 18 Tecnico Corporation.

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Military Chesapeake is home to two Navy bases: • Northwest Annex, located in the Hickory area • NALF Fentress

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Points of interest • Chesapeake Arboretum • Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal • Dismal Swamp Canal.

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Media Chesapeake's daily newspaper is The Virginian-Pilot. Other papers include the Port Folio Weekly, the New Journal and Guide, and the Hampton Roads Business Journal. Hampton Roads Magazine serves as a bi-monthly regional magazine for Chesapeake and the Hampton Roads area. Hampton Roads Times serves as an online magazine for all the Hampton Roads cities and counties. Chesapeake is served by a variety of radio stations on the AM and FM dials, with towers located around the Hampton Roads area. Chesapeake is also served by several television stations. The Hampton Roads designated market area (DMA) is the 42nd largest in the U.S. with 712,790 homes (0.64% of the total U.S.). The major network television affiliates are WTKR-TV 3 (CBS), WAVY 10 (NBC), WVEC-TV 13 (ABC), WGNT 27 (CW), WTVZ 33 (MyNetworkTV), WVBT 43 (Fox), and WPXV 49 (ION Television). The Public Broadcasting Service station is WHRO-TV 15. Chesapeake residents also can receive independent stations, such as WSKY broadcasting on channel 4 from the Outer Banks of North Carolina and WGBS-LD broadcasting on channel 11 from Hampton. Chesapeake is served by Cox Communications which provides LNC 5, a local 24-hour cable news television network.

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Toll road Tolls in Chesapeake are currently limited to the Chesapeake Expressway, Veterans Bridge and the Jordan Bridge, but new ones may be imposed on some existing facilities to help generate revenue for transportation projects in the region.

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Transport: Air Chesapeake is served by the nearby Norfolk International Airport in the City of Norfolk with commercial airline passenger service.

Within the city limits, Chesapeake Regional Airport is a general aviation facility located just south of Great Bridge. Also within the city, is the Hampton Roads Executive Airport located near Bowers Hill and the Hampton Roads Beltway. This airport caters to private airplane owners and enthusiasts. East of Great Bridge, NALF Fentress is a facility of the U.S. Navy and is an auxiliary landing field which is part of the large facility at NAS Oceana in neighboring Virginia Beach.

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River and ports The Intracoastal Waterway passes through Chesapeake. Chesapeake also has extensive frontage and port facilities on the navigable portions of the Western and Southern Branches of the Elizabeth River.

The Dismal Swamp Canal runs through Chesapeake as well. The site of this canal was surveyed by George Washington, among others, and is known as "Washington's Ditch". It is the oldest continuously used man made canal in the United States today and has been in service for over 230 years. The canal begins in the Deep Creek section of the city branching off from the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River. The canal runs through Chesapeake paralleling U.S. Highway 17 into North Carolina and connects to Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

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Transport: Rail Five railroads currently pass through portions of Chesapeake, and handle some intermodal traffic at port facilities on Hampton Roads and navigable portions of several of its tributary rivers. The two major Class 1 railroads are CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern, joined by three short line railroads.

Chesapeake is located on a potential line for high speed passenger rail service between Richmond and South Hampton Roads which is being studied by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. A new suburban passenger station near Bowers Hill would potentially be included to supplement a terminal in downtown Norfolk.

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Transport: Road • I-64 / I-464 / I-664 / US 13 / US 17 / US 58 / US 460 / SR 168 • Future I-87

Chesapeake is served by U.S. Highways 13, 17, 58, and 460. Interstate 64, part of the Hampton Roads Beltway, crosses through the city, Interstate 464 is a spur which connects it with downtown Norfolk and Portsmouth at the Berkley Bridge, and Interstate 664, which completes the Interstate loop from the Western Branch section of Chesapeake through the city of Newport News and into the city of Hampton.

State Route 168 is also a major highway in the area. It includes the Chesapeake Expressway toll road.

Chesapeake is the only locality in the Hampton Roads area with a separate bridge division. The city's Department of Public Works, Bridges and Structures division has 51 full-time workers. The city maintains 90 bridges and overpasses. Included are five movable span (draw) bridges which open an estimated 30,000 times a year for water vessels.

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Transport: Bus Hampton Roads Transit buses serve the city of Chesapeake as well as other cities in the Hampton Roads Area.

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Utilities Water and sewer services are provided by the city's Department of Utilities. Chesapeake receives its electricity from Dominion Virginia Power which has local sources including the Chesapeake Energy Center (a coal-fired and gas power plant), coal-fired plants in the city and Southampton County, and the Surry Nuclear Power Plant. Norfolk headquartered Virginia Natural Gas, a subsidiary of AGL Resources, distributes natural gas to the city from storage plants in James City County and in the city.

The Virginia tidewater area has grown faster than the local freshwater supply. Chesapeake receives the majority of its water from the Northwest River in the south-eastern part of the city. To deal with intermittent high salt content, Chesapeake implemented an advanced reverse osmosis system at its Northwest River water treatment plant in the late 1990s. The river water has always been salty, and the fresh groundwater is no longer available in most areas. Currently, additional freshwater for the South Hampton Roads area is pumped from Lake Gaston, about 80 miles (130 km) west, which straddles the Virginia-North Carolina border along with the Blackwater and Nottaway rivers. The pipeline is 76 miles (122 km) long and 60 inches (1,500 mm) in diameter. Much of its follows the former right-of-way of an abandoned portion of the Virginian Railway. It is capable of pumping 60 million US gallons (230,000 m3) of water per day. The cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach are partners in the project.

The city provides wastewater services for residents and transports wastewater to the regional Hampton Roads Sanitation District treatment plants.

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Chesapeake, Virginia, United States 
<b>Chesapeake, Virginia, United States</b>
Image: Adobe Stock Simon #316449205

Chesapeake has a population of over 244,835 people. Chesapeake also forms part of the wider Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News metropolitan area which has a population of over 1,729,114 people. Chesapeake is the #430 hipster city in the world, with a hipster score of 1.1943 according to the Hipster Index which evaluates and ranks the major cities of the world according to the number of vegan eateries, coffee shops, tattoo studios, vintage boutiques, and record stores.

To set up a UBI Lab for Chesapeake see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns - Sister Cities Chesapeake has links with:

🇧🇷 Joinville, Brazil
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license | Hipster Index

Antipodal to Chesapeake is: 103.698,-36.678

Locations Near: Chesapeake -76.3024,36.6779

🇺🇸 Portsmouth -76.298,36.834 d: 17.4  

🇺🇸 Norfolk -76.285,36.847 d: 18.8  

🇺🇸 Suffolk -76.6,36.733 d: 27.2  

🇺🇸 Newport News -76.43,36.978 d: 35.2  

🇺🇸 Hampton -76.342,37.028 d: 39.1  

🇺🇸 Virginia Beach -75.978,36.851 d: 34.7  

🇺🇸 Petersburg -77.4,37.213 d: 114.3  

🇺🇸 Roanoke Rapids -77.65,36.45 d: 123  

🇺🇸 Chesterfield -77.5,37.367 d: 131  

🇺🇸 Henrico County -77.4,37.55 d: 137.4  

Antipodal to: Chesapeake 103.698,-36.678

🇦🇺 Bunbury 115.637,-33.327 d: 18866.5  

🇦🇺 Mandurah 115.721,-32.529 d: 18823  

🇦🇺 Rockingham 115.717,-32.267 d: 18810.2  

🇦🇺 City of Cockburn 115.833,-32.167 d: 18795.4  

🇦🇺 Vincent 115.834,-31.936 d: 18783.2  

🇦🇺 Perth 115.857,-31.953 d: 18782.2  

🇦🇺 Wanneroo 115.803,-31.747 d: 18775.6  

🇦🇺 Guildford 115.973,-31.9 d: 18769.8  

🇦🇺 Midland 116.01,-31.888 d: 18766.1  

🇦🇺 Albany 117.867,-35.017 d: 18725.9  

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