A granite cross at Cape Henry marks the spot where the Jamestown settlers first touched down on the Virginia shores in 1607. Sailing aboard the Susan Constant (100 tons), the Godspeed (40 tons) and the Discovery (20 tons) under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, the one hundred colonists were sent by the Virginia Company chiefly for trading purposes. Shortly after landing at Cape Henry, the colonists moved up the James River to the site where they would build the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
The first settlement inside the city limits of Virginia Beach was made on Lynnhaven Bay in 1621, but the area that is now Virginia Beach remained thinly settled for well over a century. In the 1880's the resort was developed along the beach, and by the turn of the city was very popular. In 1906, it became a town, but the rest of the area remained undeveloped.
That began to change during WWII when the navy built Oceana Naval Air Station in what is now the middle of Virginia Beach. The end of the war saw the advent of suburbs and encroachment by neighboring Norfolk. To forstall being gobbled up by Norfolk, the resort of Virgina Beach merged with Princess Anne county in 1963 to form the modern city. Geographically Virgina Beach is huge, at 310 square miles it is the largest city in Virginia and claims to be the largest resort city in the world.
A granite cross at Cape Henry marks the spot where the Jamestown settlers first touched down on the Virginia shores in 1607. Sailing aboard the Susan Constant (100 tons), the Godspeed (40 tons) and the Discovery (20 tons) under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, the one hundred colonists were sent by the Virginia Company chiefly for trading purposes. Shortly after landing at Cape Henry, the colonists moved up the James River to the site where they would build the first permanent English settlement in the New World. 
