Newport News, Virginia

Newport News is an independent city located in Virginia. It is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending to its mouth Hampton Roads. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 180,150. A more recent 2005 estimate indicates the city's population has grown to 195,347.

The name of Newport News has long been a puzzle to those curious about the origin of place names. To this day nobody really knows how the city got its name. Several versions are recorded. One popular explanation holds that when the first Jamestown, Virginia colonists left to return to England after the Starving Time of 1610, they encountered Captain Christopher Newport's ship in the James River off Mulberry Island, and learned that reinforcements of men and supplies had arrived, and that the colonists need not abandon Jamestown. Thus the city was named for Newport's good news. Less dramatically, the city may have derived its name from an old English word "news" meaning "new town." Another theory is that the original name was New Port Neuce, named for a person with the name Neuce and the town's place as a new seaport. That the name was formerly written as Newport's News is verified by numerous early documents and maps, and by local tradition. The change to Newport News apparently was brought about by usage, for by 1851 the Post Office Department sanctioned New Port News as the name of the first post office, and in 1866 it approved the name as Newport News.

Newport News was originally located in Warwick River Shire, one of eight created in colonial Virginia in 1634. During the 17th century, shortly after establishment of the Jamestown Settlement in 1607, English settlers and explored and began settling the areas adjacent to Hampton Roads. By 1634, the English colony of Virginia consisted of eight shires or counties with a total population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants.

Warwick River Shire became Warwick County in 1637. By 1810, the county seat was at Denbigh. Virginia has had an independent city political subdivision since 1871, and Newport News became independent of Warwick County in 1896 by an act of the Virginia General Assembly. Independent city status guarantees protection against annexation of territory by adjacent communities. Walter A. Post served as the city's first mayor. In 1952, Warwick County became the independent City of Warwick, and in 1958, was consolidated with the independent city of Newport News, assuming the better-known name, and forming the third largest city population-wise in Virginia with a 65 square mile area. The boundaries of the City of Newport News today are essentially the boundaries of the original Warwick River Shire and those of Warwick County for most of its existence.

The city was essentially founded by Collis P. Huntington, builder of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and its coal piers and Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, the world's largest shipyard. His famous saying is:

We shall build good ships here. At a profit - if we can. At a loss - if we must. But always good ships.
Huntington began acquiring land in Warwick County in 1865, and developed the coal piers and the shipyard during the next 20 years. Huntington Park, near the northern terminus of the James River Bridge, is named in his honor. His son, Archer M. Huntington, developed the Mariners' Museum, one of the largest and finest maritime museums in the world.

Newport News is the location of Fort Eustis, an important U.S. Army base built in Warwick County on Mulberry Island at the mouth of the Warwick River in beginning in 1918. The city is also famous as the birthplace of legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, author William Styron, New Orleans Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks who attended Ferguson High,Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and brother Marcus Vick who both attended Warwick High, played football, and Michael was honored by the school in 1999 by retiring his football jersey. Rapper 50 Cent mentions Newport News in his song "Ski Mask Way", refering to the city as "Bad News, VA". The Mariners' Museum, the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and Christopher Newport University are located in Newport News.