Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth Virginia, USA. Located around the Elizabeth River, Norfolk has its fair share of history that makes up the history of Hampton Roads dating back to the times of the British colony in 1585. Norfolk is considered to be historic, urban and the cultural center of Hampton Roads.

Not many folks in Norfolk knew that the original natives of Norfolk were actually the Chisepean Indians and not the Powhatan Indians, and that Norfolk was originally called Skicoak. The peaceful Chisepean tribe was wiped out of their innocent existence when the Chief of the Powhatan tribe foresaw that a threat from the west was coming their way. The threat from the west, however, was not the tribe residing in the west as the Powhatan chief thought, but the English settlers that were coming their way.

Skicoak was laid out in 1682 and was incorporated in 1845. It became an independent city from Norfolk County in 1871.

On New Year’s Day, 1776, the royal governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, attacked the city of Norfolk and destroyed almost 800 buildings, which was almost two thirds of the city. Dunmore’s forces had been defeated at the Battle of Great Bridge – one of the great battles in American history to oust the vestige of the English government, during the period of the Revolution. A cannonball used in Dunmore’s siege may be viewed today in the wall of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

In 1855, the city of Norfolk suffered an epidemic of yellow fever, which killed one third of their citizens. In 1858, the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad built by William Mahone was completed in Petersburg, where major connections were made with railroads to points north, west and south. This boosted the economy quite a bit making Norfolk, VA a very prosperous city for a while before the US Civil War began. The battle of Hampton Roads in 1862 between the ironclads Monitor and Merrimac was fought in Norfolk. Early in the war, Mahone commanded the city’s defenses during the period of Confederate occupation which ended in May, 1862.

In the late 19th century, the Norfolk and Western Railway was established. This founded the community as a major coal exporter, which lead to the building of a large coal mining facility in Lambert’s Point. Then onwards, Norfolk, VA began growing into a booming city that it is today, with a steady development of facilities and economic structure.

Norfolk is also home to the Norfolk Naval Base, the world’s largest naval base and corporate headquarters of the Norfolk Southern Railway, one of North America’s principle Class I railroads.