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Newport News Community Profile |
Newport News is an independent city in Virginia. It is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending to its mouth at Hampton Roads. The name of Newport News has long been a puzzle to those curious about the origin of place names. The first settlement on the site of Newport News was made in 1621 by planters brought from Ireland by Daniel Gookin, who selected the site on the advice of Sir William Newce and his brother Captain Thomas Newce. On the edge of Elizabeth City County, it was earliest an unincorporated town without formal boundaries in Warwick County for over 250 years. Beginning in 1881, 15 years of explosive development began under Collis P. Huntington, who built a new railroad, coal piers, and a large shipyard. In 1896, Newport News, which had been the county seat of Warwick County, became a separate city from the county. In 1900, 19,635 people lived in Newport News, Virginia; in 1910, 20,205; in 1920, 35,596; and in 1940, 37,067. However, the city consolidated with the former Warwick County by mutual consent in 1958, becoming Virginia's third largest in city population. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 180,150. A more recent 2005 estimate indicates the city's population has declined to 179,899 [1]. It is Virginia's fifth largest city. Among the city's major industries are Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, owned by Northrop Grumman[2], and the large coal piers supplied by railroad giant CSX Transportation. Miles of the waterfront can be seen by automobiles crossing the James River Bridge and Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel. Recovered artifacts from the USS Monitor are displayed at the Mariners' Museum, and American Civil War battle sites near historic Lee Hall and several plantations have been protected along the roads leading to Yorktown and Williamsburg of the Historic Triangle. REAL ESTATE TAX RATES ··· http://www.nngov.com/assessor/tax_calc.htm SCHOOL LINKS ··· School Map GENERAL INFORMATION LINKS ··· Crime, Income, Commute Time, and other Community stats on www.Trulia.com |