Newport News, Virginia

About Newport News, Virginia

Newport News is an independent city in Virginia. It is at the south-western end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending south from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News Point on the harbor of Hampton Roads.

The area known as Newport News was part of Warwick County, one of the eight original shires of Virginia formed by the House of Burgesses in the British Colony of Virginia by order of King Charles I in 1634. The county was largely composed of farms and undeveloped land until almost 250 years later. In 1881, 15 years of explosive development began under the leadership of Collis P. Huntington, who built a new railroad and terminal, coal piers, and a large shipyard in the southeastern portion closest to the harbor.

In 1896, the new unincorporated town of Newport News, which had briefly replaced Denbigh as the county seat of Warwick County, became an independent city, separating 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, in 1958, by mutual consent, Newport News consolidated with the former Warwick County (itself a separate city from 1952 to 1958), rejoining the two localities to approximately their pre-1896 geographic size, forming what was then Virginia's third largest independent city in population. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 180,150. A more recent 2006 estimate indicates the city's population has declined to 178,281, ranking it as Virginia's fifth largest incorporated city by population.