49 Fun Facts About Virginia Beach

Roughly how many people lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia's biggest city, at the 2020 census?

The 2020 census counted 459,470 residents, about 460,000, putting Virginia Beach ahead of Chesapeake, Norfolk and Richmond as the most populous city in Virginia.

What Guinness record does the city hold?

Guinness World Records lists Virginia Beach as the longest pleasure beach in the world, its sand running from the Chesapeake Bay shore south to the North Carolina line.

In 1963 Virginia Beach merged with which neighbouring jurisdiction to form the present-day city?

Virginia Beach and Princess Anne County merged on January 1, 1963, after voters in both approved the consolidation; the new city kept the better-known resort name.

In a 2016 referendum, Virginia Beach voters rejected extending which Norfolk light-rail line?

The Tide, Norfolk's light rail, opened in 2011; a November 2016 advisory referendum on extending it to Virginia Beach Town Center failed, and the city council dropped the project.

On what date in 1607 did Christopher Newport's colonists land at Cape Henry?

Christopher Newport's three ships made landfall at Cape Henry on April 26, 1607, after about four months at sea; the colonists moved up the James River to found Jamestown on May 14.

First Landing State Park was known until 1997 by what name?

Seashore State Park, one of Virginia's six original state parks opened in 1936 and built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, was renamed First Landing in 1997 for the colonists' 1607 arrival at Cape Henry.

The 1792 Cape Henry Lighthouse holds what distinction in US history?

Authorized by the first Congress in 1789 and finished in 1792, Cape Henry was the first federal construction project under the Constitution; contractor John McComb Jr. built it of sandstone before a cast-iron tower replaced it in 1881.

How tall is the 1881 cast-iron Cape Henry Lighthouse that replaced the original?

The 1881 tower is 157 feet tall, an octagonal cast-iron lighthouse with black-and-white faces, built about 350 feet from the cracked 1792 sandstone original, which was kept as a monument.

The 1781 Battle of the Chesapeake off Cape Henry, which doomed Cornwallis, pitted Britain against whom?

The French fleet under the Comte de Grasse, 24 ships of the line, held off Thomas Graves's 19 British ships on September 5, 1781, cutting Cornwallis off from the sea; he surrendered at Yorktown six weeks later.

How long is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel that links Virginia Beach to the Eastern Shore?

The 17.6-mile crossing opened on April 15, 1964, with two mile-long tunnels and four man-made islands, and saves about 95 miles of driving between Virginia Beach and Philadelphia.

Which crossing overtook the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel as the world's longest bridge-tunnel complex in 2018?

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, opened in October 2018 with 55 km of bridges and tunnel, took the title; the Chesapeake crossing is officially the Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge-Tunnel.

Which installation is Virginia Beach's biggest employer and the East Coast's only master jet base?

Naval Air Station Oceana, the Navy's East Coast Master Jet Base, hosts the Atlantic Fleet's F/A-18 Super Hornet squadrons and employs more people than any other Virginia Beach institution.

How long is the concrete Virginia Beach boardwalk that runs north from Rudee Inlet?

The boardwalk runs three miles from Rudee Inlet north to about 40th Street, with a parallel bike path beside the concrete walkway; the first wooden boardwalk of 1888 ran only five blocks.

How tall is the bronze King Neptune statue that overlooks the boardwalk at 31st Street?

Paul DiPasquale's bronze King Neptune stands 34 feet tall and weighs 12.5 tons; it was dedicated in September 2005 and gives Neptune Park at 31st Street its name.

The Neptune Festival, the city's biggest, has been held every September since which year?

The Neptune Festival began in 1974 as a way to extend the tourist season past Labor Day; it fills September and ends with a Boardwalk Weekend whose sandsculpting championship is the centrepiece.

Which Virginia Beach museum occupies the 1903 life-saving station on the boardwalk at 24th Street?

The Old Coast Guard Station was built in 1903 for the U.S. Life-Saving Service, passed to the Coast Guard in 1915 and has been a maritime museum since 1981.

Mount Trashmore Park, opened in 1974, was built on top of what?

Mount Trashmore was made by layering compacted solid waste with clean soil over the city's old landfill, turning a dump into a public park with two man-made mountains and lakes when it opened in 1974.

Which Virginia Beach-born producer launched the Something in the Water festival in 2019?

Pharrell Williams, born in Virginia Beach in 1973, staged the first Something in the Water on the oceanfront in April 2019; with Chad Hugo he formed the production duo The Neptunes.

Where did Pharrell and Chad Hugo, the future Neptunes, first meet?

Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo met as seventh-graders at a summer band camp, where Williams played drums and Hugo saxophone; they later formed The Neptunes, producing hits for Nelly, Britney Spears and Jay-Z.

The Norwegian Lady statue commemorates the 1891 wreck of which Norwegian barque?

The Norwegian barque Dictator ran aground in a storm off Virginia Beach on March 27, 1891; Captain Jørgen Jørgensen survived but his wife and young son drowned, and the ship's figurehead was set up on the oceanfront as a memorial.

An identical twin of Virginia Beach's Norwegian Lady stands in which Norwegian sister city?

Moss, the Dictator's home port, received an identical bronze by sculptor Ørnulf Bast, unveiled in September 1962 like Virginia Beach's; the two towns are sister cities.

The historic Cavalier Hotel opened on the oceanfront in which year?

The Cavalier opened in April 1927 on a hill above the oceanfront; the Navy took it over as a training school in 1942, and it reopened in 2018 after a multi-year restoration.

Which 'Sleeping Prophet' founded the Association for Research and Enlightenment in 1931?

Edgar Cayce, the 'Sleeping Prophet' who gave thousands of readings in a trance, moved to Virginia Beach in 1925 and founded the Association for Research and Enlightenment there in 1931; he died in 1945.

The Virginia Aquarium opened in 1986 as the 'Virginia' what?

It opened in 1986 as the Virginia Marine Science Museum and took the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center name in 2006; its tanks hold more than 800,000 gallons of water.

Which surf contest has been held in Virginia Beach every summer since 1963?

The East Coast Surfing Championships began at Gilgo Beach, Long Island, in 1962 and moved to Virginia Beach's oceanfront in 1963, where the late-summer contest has been held every year since.

Virginia's Adam Thoroughgood House is now dated to about which year?

Tree-ring dating places the house about 1719, built by Adam Thoroughgood's great-grandson; it had long been claimed as a 1636 house and was made a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

What had Adam Thoroughgood, who named the Lynnhaven River after King's Lynn, been when he arrived in Virginia in 1622?

Adam Thoroughgood came to Virginia in 1622 as an indentured servant, worked off his term and rose to sit in the House of Burgesses; Norfolk takes its name from his home county in England.

Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in southern Virginia Beach was established in which year?

Established in 1938, Back Bay refuge protects more than 9,000 acres of dunes, marsh and beach that serve as a stop on the Atlantic Flyway for snow geese and tundra swans.

Which state park adjoins Back Bay refuge to the south, reaching down to the North Carolina line?

False Cape State Park runs six miles along the Atlantic between Back Bay refuge and the North Carolina line; with no public road, visitors arrive on foot, by bike, by boat or on the refuge tram.

Which area code do locals use as a nickname for Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads?

757 has been the Hampton Roads code since it split from 804 in 1996, and locals wear it as shorthand for the region; the 948 overlay arrived in 2022.

What is Virginia Beach's official nickname?

Virginia Beach styles itself The Resort City; tourism took off after the railroad from Norfolk arrived in 1883, and the first wooden boardwalk followed in 1888.

Which city with the world's largest naval base lies about 19 miles west of Virginia Beach?

Norfolk, about 19 miles west along I-264, holds Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base, and with Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Newport News and Hampton forms the Hampton Roads metro area.

By total area, how does Virginia Beach rank among Virginia's cities?

At 497 square miles, much of it water, Virginia Beach is the largest city in Virginia by total area; by land alone it ranks third behind Suffolk and Chesapeake.

What climate classification does Virginia Beach have?

Virginia Beach is humid subtropical (Köppen Cfa): hot, sticky summers, mild winters and year-round rain, with the nearby Gulf Stream moderating temperatures and keeping snow rare.

In what year was Virginia Beach first incorporated as a town, before becoming a city in 1952?

Virginia Beach was incorporated as a town in 1906, became an independent city in 1952, and then merged with the surrounding county in 1963, multiplying its size overnight.

The Cape Henry Lighthouse and the site of the first landing sit inside which military base?

Fort Story, the Army post at Cape Henry that joined Little Creek in 2009 as Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, surrounds both lighthouses; Preservation Virginia has cared for the old tower since 1930.

The only fishing pier reachable directly from the boardwalk is at which street?

The 14th Street Fishing Pier is the only pier accessible from the boardwalk itself.

How many acres does Mount Trashmore Park cover?

Mount Trashmore Park covers 165 acres, with two lakes, walking trails, volleyball courts and a skate park around its grassed-over hills.

How many acres of trails, dunes and cypress swamp does First Landing State Park cover?

First Landing covers about 2,900 acres (2,888) at Cape Henry, with more than 19 miles of trails; its bald-cypress swamps and forested dunes were named a National Natural Landmark.

In which year did the Navy commission its Oceana air station, having begun construction in 1941?

Oceana was commissioned as a Naval Auxiliary Air Station in August 1943, on marshland bought in 1940, and was upgraded to a full Naval Air Station in 1952 as jets arrived.

The 1891 wreck whose figurehead became the Norwegian Lady had sailed from which port?

The Dictator had left Pensacola, Florida, with a cargo of lumber for West Hartlepool, England, when a storm drove her onto a sandbar off Virginia Beach; life-saving crews brought the survivors ashore.

Which Algonquian-speaking people lived in the Virginia Beach area at the time of European contact?

The Chesepian (or Chesapeake) people lived around the Lynnhaven and Elizabeth rivers; Powhatan is said to have wiped them out around 1607, shortly before or after the English landed.

Roughly what share of Virginia Beach's 497 square miles is water?

About 50 percent: the city's 497 square miles split into 248 of water and 249 of land, giving it by far the most water area of any Virginia city; its average elevation is 12 feet.

Which road, completed in 1922, first opened the city's oceanfront to cars arriving from Norfolk?

Virginia Beach Boulevard, finished in 1922, was the first paved highway from Norfolk to the oceanfront; until then visitors came by the 1883 railroad and later an electric trolley, which closed as cars took over.

How many people were killed in the May 31, 2019 shooting at a Virginia Beach municipal building?

Twelve people were killed at the municipal center on May 31, 2019, by a city engineer who had emailed his resignation that morning; four others were wounded before police shot him dead.

How high does Mount Trashmore rise above the surrounding park?

Mount Trashmore rises 60 feet and runs more than 800 feet long; the grassed hill, opened as a park in 1974, is visible from I-264 on the way to the oceanfront.

The Japanese garden in Red Wing Park honours Virginia Beach's sister-city link with which city?

Miyazaki has been Virginia Beach's Japanese sister city since the 1990s, and the Japanese garden in Red Wing Park was built to mark the tie; the city's other partners include Bangor in Northern Ireland and Olongapo in the Philippines.

Which broadcaster, maker of The 700 Club, has its headquarters in the city beside Regent University?

The Christian Broadcasting Network, founded by Pat Robertson in 1960 and producer of The 700 Club, moved its headquarters to a Virginia Beach campus in 1979, next to the university Robertson founded as CBN University.

From which reservoir on the Virginia–North Carolina border is the Tidewater area's water pumped?

Lake Gaston, on the Roanoke River at the Virginia–North Carolina line, feeds a 76-mile pipeline completed in 1998 that supplies Virginia Beach and Chesapeake; Norfolk's reservoirs and the Blackwater and Nottoway rivers supplement it.