Virginia Beach

Virginia Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Virginia, United States, where Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. At Cape Henry, inside the present city, the English colonists bound for Jamestown first came ashore in 1607.

The area became Princess Anne County in the late 17th century, and the brick Adam Thoroughgood House from that era is among the oldest houses in Virginia. The old Cape Henry Lighthouse, finished in the 1790s, was the first construction project paid for by the new federal government. A railroad from Norfolk brought summer guests to the ocean front from the 1880s, and the Cavalier Hotel opened on a hill above the beach in the 1920s. The resort town and Princess Anne County merged in 1963 to form the present city.

Stihl Inc., the American arm of the German maker, builds chainsaws and other outdoor power tools at its plant in Virginia Beach. Lynnhaven oysters from the inlets of the Lynnhaven River were shipped to markets up the coast in the 19th century, and their beds are farmed again. Strawberries, pumpkins and soybeans come from the farms of Pungo in the rural south of the city.

The boardwalk runs along the ocean front past a statue of King Neptune that stands over the Neptune Festival each September. First Landing State Park keeps cypress swamps and dunes on the bay shore where the colonists landed. Edgar Cayce, the psychic healer, settled in Virginia Beach, and the Association for Research and Enlightenment he founded still keeps his readings there. Pharrell Williams was born in Virginia Beach, and the Virginia Aquarium shows the sea turtles and fish of the Chesapeake.