USA – VIRGINIA & WEST VIRGINIA

VIRGINIA (Richmond, Arlington, Norfolk, Roanoke, Harrisonburg)
Officially the Commonwealth of Virginia is located between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna. The capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond; Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealth’s estimated population as of 2019 is over 8.54 million.
The area’s history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent English colony in the New World. Virginia’s state nickname, the Old Dominion, is a reference to this status. Slave labour and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colony’s early politics and plantation economy. Virginia was one of the 13 Colonies in the American Revolution. In the American Civil War, Virginia’s Secession Convention resolved to join the Confederacy, and Virginia’s First Wheeling Convention resolved to remain in the Union; which led to the creation of West Virginia.
The Virginia General Assembly is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World. The state government is unique in how it treats cities and counties equally, manages local roads, and prohibits its governors from serving consecutive terms. Virginia’s economy has many sectors: agriculture in the Shenandoah Valley; federal agencies in Northern Virginia, including the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defence and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); and military facilities in Hampton Roads, the site of the region’s main seaport.

George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. One of the largest areas of public land in the Eastern United States. They cover 1.8 million acres (7,300 km²) of land in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The border between the two forests roughly follows the James River. The combined forest is administered from its headquarters in Roanoke.
The northern portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway runs through the Forest. Over 2,000 miles (3,000 km) of hiking trails, including 330 miles of the Appalachian Trail (from the southern end of Shenandoah National Park through the forest and along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Features include Virginia’s highest point, Mount Rogers, Elliott Knob, one of the last remaining fire lookout towers, and Whitetop Mountain. Approximately 230,000 acres (930 km²) of old-growth forests. The ghost town of Lignite, Virginia lies within the forest. The deepest gorge east of the Mississippi River, Breaks Interstate Park, is located in the forest.
The black bear is relatively common, enough so that there is a short hunting season to control overpopulation. The George Washington National Forest is a popular destination for trail runners.

ROANOKE (pop 98,000 2010)
Bisected by the Roanoke River, Roanoke is the commercial and cultural hub of much of Southwest Virginia and portions of Southern West Virginia. Its location in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the middle of the Roanoke Valley between Maryland and Tennessee, made it the transportation hub of western Virginia and contributed to its rapid growth.
The town was first called Big Lick in 1852, named for a large outcropping of salt which drew wildlife.
During colonial times, Roanoke was an important hub of trails and roads. The Great Indian Warpath which later merged into the colonial Great Wagon Road, one of the most heavily traveled roads of 18th-century America, ran from Philadelphia through the Shenandoah Valley to Roanoke, where the Roanoke River passed through the Blue Ridge. . At Roanoke Gap, another branch of the Great Wagon Road, the Wilderness Road, continued southwest to Tennessee.

CHARLOTTESVILLE
Monticello and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, World Heritage Site 1987. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, philosopher, scientist, historian, and author of the Declaration of Independence, helped establish the foundations of self-government and individual freedom we know today. Jefferson’s words—the Declaration and his more than 19,000 letters—and his architecture—including Monticello and the University of Virginia— provide a lens for scholars and visitors today to view the beginnings of early America.
Monticello is the only U.S. presiden­tial and private home on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The designation details Thomas Jefferson’s architectural inge­nuity and use of neo-classical elements in creating both Monticello and the University of Virginia. A self-taught architect, Jefferson referred to Monticello as his “essay in architecture,” and construction continued on the mountaintop for forty years. The final product is a unique blend of beauty and function that combines the best elements of the old worlds with a fresh American perspective. Jefferson designed Monticello after ancient and Renaissance models, and in particular after the work of Italian architect Andrea Palladio. In location—a frontier mountaintop—and in design—a Renaissance villa—Monticello was intentionally a far cry from the other American homes of its day.

University of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia in 1819. He considered the founding of the University to be one of his greatest achievements and what he called “the Hobby of my old age.” Jefferson designed the Academical Village, a terraced green space surrounded by residential and academic build­ings, gardens, and the majestic center point—the Rotunda. The most recognizable symbol of the University, the Rotunda stands at the north end of the Lawn and is half the height and width of the Pantheon in Rome, which was the primary inspiration for the building.

THOMAS JEFFERSON BUILDINGS Tentative WHS (30/01/2008)
These two buildings, both notable architectural works by Thomas Jefferson, are a joint extension to the World Heritage listing that includes Monticello and the University of Virginia. They represent Jefferson’s eclectic Classicism architecture with which Jefferson was concerned: domestic, educational, and governmental.
Poplar Forest,   Bedford County. Poplar Forest is a rural retreat designed by Jefferson, the finishing details of which were largely executed for him by his slave John Hemings beginning before Jefferson retired from the U.S.  presidency in 1809.  At the historic core of the property and set just south of the remains of a grove of poplars that gave the place its name is a 2-story brick house built in a perfect octagon around a central cube. It is one of America’s first octagonal houses, drawing on Roman Classical details derived from Palladio and aspects of French late 18th-century architecture, such as floor-to-ceiling windows and the use of skylights. Also surviving from Jefferson’s era are designed landscape features, including mounds flanking the house (“pavilions”) and a sunken lawn.  The landscaping was inspired by English gardens. Each side of the octagon is 7 meters (22 feet); the cube at the center measures about 6 meters (20 feet) on each side.  The service wing to the east was added in 1814.
Virginia State Capitol, Richmond. The Virginia State Capitol was constructed in 1785-98 on the Capitol Square Site in Richmond selected by Jefferson in 1780 when he was Governor of Virginia during the American Revolution. The Roman temple form of the original Jeffersonian central portion of the building is an enlarged version of the Maison Carrée at Nimes, France, which Jefferson visited during his service as American Minister to France. The interior plan was modelled on the earlier Virginia colonial capitol in Williamsburg. Flanking wings set back from the original building were constructed in 1904-06.  The State Capitol continues to serve its historic use.

RICHMOND
The Jefferson Hotel is a luxury hotel that opened in 1895. On-site is “Lemaire”, a restaurant named after Etienne Lemaire, who served as maitre d’hotel to Thomas Jefferson from 1794 through the end of his presidency. Tobacco baron Lewis Ginter planned the development of the hotel as a premier property in the city. In 1901, there was a wire fire that destroyed three-fifths of the hotel. There were no casualties; however, the statue of Thomas Jefferson was almost destroyed. In March 1944, another fire occurred. Six people were killed during the fire.
Patrons have included thirteen United States presidents, writers, and celebrities, including Henry James, Charles Lindbergh, The Rolling Stones, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, and Anthony Hopkins.
In the check-in lobby, known as the Palm Court, nine original stained glass Tiffany windows with the hotel’s monogram remain. The three stained glass windows above the front desk and the stained glass dome are reproductions.
Alligators in the lobby. The alligators at the Jefferson became world-famous. Old Pompey, the last alligator living in the marble pools of the Jefferson’s Palm Court, survived until 1948. Bronze statues of the alligators now decorate the hotel. Its restaurant, Lemaire, has a theme of alligator motifs.

Monument Avenue is an avenue in Richmond with a tree-lined grassy mall dividing the east- and westbound traffic, punctuated by statues memorializing Virginian Confederate veterans of the American Civil War, including Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart, Jefferson Davis, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and Matthew Fontaine Maury. There is also a monument to Arthur Ashe, a Richmond native and international tennis star who was African-American. The first monument, a statue of Robert E. Lee, was erected in 1890. Between 1900 and 1925, Monument Avenue greatly expanded with architecturally significant houses, churches and apartment buildings.

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At various times (such as Robert E. Lee’s birthday and Confederate History Month) the Sons of Confederate Veterans gather along Monument Avenue in period military costumes.
In 2007, the American Planning Association named Monument Avenue one of the 10 Great Streets in the country.
If you drive far enough down Monument Avenue past the statues of Confederate leaders General Robert E. Lee and President Jefferson Davis, you’ll find a bronze of native son Arthur Ashe, the tennis legend and activist, holding books and a racket. A few miles to the east is the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial, not far from a statue of Abraham Lincoln. This is how the former Confederate capital has dealt with the weight of history: not by removing troubling monuments, but by adding to them. It’s a different approach than the one taken by many Southern cities and towns, which have been roiled by the push to remove monuments to Confederate leaders and prominent slaveholders. From St. Louis to Orlando, from New Orleans to Charlottesville, Va., the prospect of the statues’ coming down has led to angry, sometimes violent protests among those who see them as vital to their heritage and others who see them as emblems of hate.
Yet in Richmond, which has no shortage of public memorials to defenders of white supremacy, there has been comparatively little outcry. The reason, say many residents and historians, is that the city has been working for decades to reinterpret its past, updating older tributes with much-needed context while adding new ones to the canon.
Part of it is representation. Unlike many other Southern cities, Richmond elected its first black city council member in the 1940s and had a black mayor and a majority-black city council by the 1970s. “Once you have that in place,” says Civil War historian Kevin Levin, “you begin to shift or shape the public discussion about what kind of history you’re going to commemorate.”
Richmond was never going to pave over its Confederate past; Civil War tourism is too valuable to the local economy. But the civic discussion that began decades ago resulted in addition rather than subtraction. In 2003, seven years after the city erected the monument to Ashe, officials installed the memorial to Lincoln. Later, the Richmond Slavery Reconciliation Statue went up near Shockoe Bottom, a former slave market. On July 15 the city will unveil a statue of Maggie Walker, the first black woman to charter a bank.
T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge. Crossing the James River in Richmond, the 1,600-foot long, 10-foot wide bridge connects Brown’s Island to the James River Parks System on the Manchester side of the river, a frayed district undergoing dramatic transformation. It was originally constructed as a dam in 1901 by the Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCO) as a 31.5 ft (9.6 m) tall structure to divert water into the Haxall Canal where it was received by the 12th Street Power Station until its decommissioning in 1968. The bridge has been renamed after a senior planner in the Richmond Department of Planning and Development Review who was the project manager for the bridge’s redevelopment into a pedestrian bridge. Few places claim Richmond’s rich mix of old manufacturing and hydroelectric plants, railroad trestles, bridges, canal remnants and hundreds of acres of forest all connected by a wild river that’s both welcoming enough for rock hopping and rough enough for audacious kayakers. The lack of even the slightest curve or décor respects its underpinnings, an industrial-age relic.
The deck was placed over the existing piers and structures but required a new augmented metal framework. The bridge was reopened in 2016 after a $11.3 million renovation for pedestrians and cyclists. The “Three Days in April 1865” installation recounts on metal decking how the former Capital of the Confederate States of America fell and many of its people fled while fire consumed the city.
James River begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows 348 miles (560 km) to Chesapeake Bay. The river length extends to 444 miles (715 km) if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. It is the longest river in Virginia and the 12th longest river in the United States that remains entirely within a single state. Jamestown and Williamsburg, Virginia’s first colonial capitals, and Richmond, Virginia’s current capital, lie on the James River.

WILLIAMSBURG (pop 14,000)
Williamsburg was founded in 1632 as Middle Plantation, a fortified settlement on high ground between the James and York rivers. The city served as the capital of the Colony and Commonwealth of Virginia from 1699 to 1780 and was the center of political events in Virginia leading to the American Revolution. The College of William & Mary, established in 1693, is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and the only one of the nine colonial colleges located in the South; its alumni include three U.S. Presidents as well as many other important figures in the nation’s early history.
The city’s tourism-based economy is driven by Colonial Williamsburg, the restored Historic Area of the city, along with nearby Jamestown and Yorktown.

NEWPORT NEWS (pop 179,225)
At the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, its location on the harbour and along the James River facilitates a large boating industry which can take advantage of its many miles of waterfront. With many residents employed at the expansive Newport News Shipbuilding, the joint U.S. Air Force-U.S. Army installation at Joint Base Langley–Eustis, and other military bases and suppliers, the city’s economy is very connected to the military..

NORFOLK/CHESAPEAKE (pop 244,000)
Norfolk is located at the core of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, named for the large natural harbour of the same name located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. One of nine cities and seven counties in Hampton Roads, Norfolk is considered to be the historic, urban, financial, and cultural center of the region.
The city has a long history as a strategic military and transportation point. The largest naval base in the world, Naval Station Norfolk, is located in Norfolk along with one of NATO’s two Strategic Command headquarters. As the city is bordered by multiple bodies of water, Norfolk has many miles of riverfront and bayfront property, including beaches on the Chesapeake Bay. It is linked to its neighbors by an extensive network of interstate highways, bridges, tunnels, and three bridge-tunnel complexes, which are the only bridge tunnels in the United States.

VIRGINIA BEACH (pop 451,000)
The most populous city in Virginia, it is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Virginia Beach is a resort city with miles of beaches and hundreds of hotels, motels, and restaurants along its oceanfront. It is home to several state parks, several long-protected beach areas, three military bases, several large corporations, Virginia Wesleyan University and Regent University, and the international headquarters and site of the television broadcast studios for Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Near the point where the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet, Cape Henry was the site of the first landing of the English colonists, who eventually settled in Jamestown, on April 26, 1607.
The city is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the longest pleasure beach in the world.

Looking east from the end of all the hotels
The Cavelier Hotel. A historic hotel in Virginia Beach, the seven-story building has a Y-shaped floor plan and was completed in 1927 during the period of prosperity known as the Roaring Twenties, and was a major element of the development of Virginia Beach as a resort area. Most of its hotel rooms featured views of the Atlantic Ocean, and all had private bathrooms.
It was commandeered by the United States Navy as a training center during World War II, and was used as a private club for a time in the 1950s and 1960s. An extensive renovation cost $81 million and it opened in spring 2018 with 62 rooms and 23 suites, down from the original 135. The hotel also retained 21 of its original 350 acres.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Crossing over and under open waters where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean, the Bridge-Tunnel provides a direct link between Southeastern Virginia and the Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware plus the Eastern Shore counties in Maryland and Virginia), and cuts 95 miles from the journey between Virginia Beach and points north of Wilmington, Delaware. It was opened in 1964. From shore to shore, the bridge-tunnel measures 17.6 miles (28.4 km) and is considered one of the world’s largest bridge-tunnel complexes. Construction of the span required undertaking a project of more than 12 miles of low-level trestle, two 1-mile tunnels, two bridges, almost 2 miles of causeway, four manmade islands and 5-1/2 miles of approach roads, totalling 23 miles.
The cost is $14.

I returned to northern Virginia from New Hampshire and Maryland to visit a few sites just south of Washington DC.

ARLINGTON
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Arlington National Cemetery’s most iconic memorial, it stands atop a hill overlooking Washington, D.C. The neoclassical, white marble sarcophagus depicts three carved Greek figures representing Peace, Victory, and Valor. Inscribed on the back of the Tomb are the words: Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God. The Tomb sarcophagus stands above the grave of the Unknown Soldier of World War I. To the west are the crypts for an Unknown Soldier from World War II and the Korean War. A white marble slab flush with the plaza marks each crypt.
The Unknown of World War I. The journey of the World War I Unknown to Arlington began in France in September 1921, when four American bodies were exhumed from unmarked battlefield graves and one was selected the Unknown Soldier from among four identical caskets
The Unknowns of World War II and Korea. The Army ultimately exhumed eighteen bodies from North Africa, Europe, the Philippines and Hawaii; two Unknowns were chosen and one selected the Unknown Soldier of World War II. The remaining casket received a solemn burial at sea. Along with the Unknown from the Korean War, they were interred in the plaza beside their World War I comrade. The Unknown of Vietnam remained vacant until 1999 when it was rededicated to honor all missing U.S. service members from the Vietnam War.

United States Marine Corps War Memorial. Another national memorial, it was dedicated in 1954 to all Marines who have given their lives in defense of the United States since 1775. It is located in Arlington Ridge Park near Arlington National Cemetery. The war memorial was inspired by the iconic 1945 photograph of six Marines raising a U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II^[3] taken by Associated Press combat photographer Joe Rosenthal.

Gadsby’s Tavern, Alexandria. Built c. 1785 and enlarged in 1792, the tavern was a central part of the social, economic, political, and educational life of the city of Alexandria. It is home to Gadsby’s Tavern Restaurant, American Legion Post 24, and Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, a cultural history museum. The museum houses exhibits of early American life in Virginia, and the restaurant operates in the original dining room, serving a mixture of period and modern foods.
In 1816, a 23-year-old woman succumbed to a disease contracted on the ship to Alexandria on which she traveled with her husband. On her deathbed, she made the people surrounding her swear an oath that they would never reveal her identity. The promise was kept; her grave, a table-like structure in St. Paul’s Cemetery is marked “Female Stranger”. Her ghost is said to haunt the cemetery and Room 8 of Gadsby’s Tavern, the room in which she died.
The ice house has been rescued – it is a brick lined circular hole under the sidewalk. Ice from the Potomac was lowered into it, the ice smashed into one block and covered with hay. Ice was sold for 8c a pound.

George Washington’s Mount Vernon (30/01/2008)
Mount Vernon was the plantation of George Washington, the first President of the United States, and his wife, Martha Washington. The estate is situated on the banks of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia, near Alexandria. The Washington family owned land in the area since the time of Washington’s great-grandfather in 1674. The mansion was built of wood in a loose Palladian style; the original house was built by George Washington’s father Augustine, around 1734. George Washington expanded the house twice, once in the late 1750s and again in the 1770s. It remained Washington’s home for the rest of his life. Following his death in 1799, under the ownership of several successive generations of the family, the estate progressively declined as revenues were insufficient to maintain it adequately. In 1858, the house’s historical importance was recognized and it was saved from ruin by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association and is open every day of the year, including Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Allowing the public to see the estate is not an innovation, but part of an over 200-year-old tradition started by George Washington himself. In 1794 he wrote: “I have no objection to any sober or orderly person’s gratifying their curiosity in viewing the buildings, Gardens, &ca. about Mount Vernon.”
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WEST VIRGINIA  (Charleston, Morgantown, Parkersburg)

BERKELEY SPRINGS
Berkeley Castle (Samuel Taylor Suit Cottage) is located on a hill above Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. The castle-like house was built for Colonel Samuel Taylor Suit of Washington, D.C. as a personal retreat near the spa town, beginning in 1885. It was not complete by the time of his death in 1888 and was finished in the early 1890s for his young widow, Rosa Pelham Suit, whom Suit had first met at Berkeley Springs and their three children. The post-1888 work is of noticeably inferior quality.
The fifteen-room interior features a ballroom 50 feet (15.2 m) wide and 40 ft (12.2 m) long. Mrs. Suit entertained lavishly at the house until her money ran out and the property was sold in 1913.

Farnham Colossi, Unger. In the NM “Bizzarium” series, huge roadside figures and displayed on the lawn.From the Muffler Man to the UniRoyal Gal and even a kiddie roller coaster complete with a set of cars filled with Bart, Lisa, Maggie, Homer, and Marge. The Paul Bunyan statue here is an old muffler promotional figure (minus the muffler).

You’ll even find an early rendition of the Big Boy statues in this very rural roadside collection. For all practical purposes, the Farnham Collection is out in the middle of nowhere in the tiny community of Unger. However; Unger is only 25 minutes from Interstate 81 — and only 19 miles south of Berkeley Springs.