Virginia Beach Through the 20th Century

Author and historian Amy Waters Yarsinske takes a look back at Virginia Beach in the twentieth century, to the decades—and events—that shaped a city that although largely suburban in character, is the most populous in Virginia and the forty-first most populous municipality in the United States. Located in Hampton Roads, an area known as "America's First Region," and situated on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Beach is a resort city with miles of beaches and a vibrant Oceanfront strip, several state parks, three military bases, a number of large corporations, two universities, and many historic sites. Near the point where the ocean and bay meet, Cape Henry was the site of the first landing of the English colonists, who eventually settled at Jamestown, on April 26, 1607. Virginia Beach is also located at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the longest bridge-tunnel complex in the world. The story of today's Virginia Beach was written in the twentieth century, when a town and a county came together, taking the name of the better known and richly historic Oceanfront resort. Virginia Beach Through the 20th Century takes you back to the remarkable people, places and events that gave birth to the "jewel resort of the Atlantic."