Virginia
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State flag
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VIRGINIA,
in full Commonwealth of Virginia, also known as the Old Dominion,
one of the South Atlantic states of the U.S., bordered on the N
by West Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.; on the E by Maryland and the Atlantic Ocean; on the S by North Carolina and Tennessee; and on the W by Kentucky. The Potomac R. forms the NE boundary.
Chesapeake Bay separates the Eastern Shore area, in the S part of
the Delmarva Peninsula, from the rest of the state.
Virginia entered the Union on June 25, 1788, as the tenth
of the original 13 states. One of the first English communities
in North America was established at Jamestown in 1607, and Virginia
subsequently became a leading colony. Major battles of the American
Revolution and Civil War were fought in the state. Virginia’s economy
was chiefly agricultural until the 20th century, when manufacturing
became the principal goods-producing industry. In the early 1990s
farming, mining, tourism, and trade were also important sectors
of the state’s economy, and numerous Virginians were employed
by the federal government. Virginia is famous as the birthplace
of many notable Americans, including eight presidents—George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William
Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson.
The state is probably named for Elizabeth I of England, known as
the Virgin Queen; the name may also be derived from that of an Indian
community in the area of the original colony.
| VIRGINIA STATE FACTS |
| DATE OF STATEHOOD: |
June 25, 1788; 10th state |
| CAPITAL: |
Richmond |
| MOTTO: |
Sic semper tyrannis (Thus always to tyrants) |
| NICKNAME: |
Old Dominion |
| STATE SONG: |
“Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” (words and music by James A. Bland) |
| STATE TREE: |
Dogwood |
| STATE FLOWER: |
Dogwood |
| STATE BIRD: |
Cardinal |
| POPULATION (2000 census): |
7,078,515; 12th among the states |
| AREA: |
110,771 sq km (42,769 sq mi); 35th largest state; includes 8213 sq km (3171 sq mi) of inland water |
| COASTLINE: |
180 km (112 mi) |
| HIGHEST POINT: |
Mt. Rogers, 1746 m (5729 ft) |
| LOWEST POINT: |
Sea level, at the Atlantic coast |
| ELECTORAL VOTES: |
13 |
| U.S. CONGRESS: |
2 senators; 11 representatives |
| GOVERNOR: |
Mark R. Warner (Dem.) Took office January 2002 |
Virginia, with an area of 110,771 sq km (42,769 sq mi), is
the 35th largest state in the U.S.; 7.5% of the land area
is owned by the federal government. The state is roughly triangular
in shape, and its extreme dimensions are about 710 km (about 440
mi) from E to W and about 320 km (about 200 mi) from N to S. Elevations
range from sea level, along the Atlantic Ocean, to 1746 m (5729
ft), atop Mt. Rogers, in the SW; the approximate mean elevation
is 290 m (950 ft). Virginia has a coastline of about 180 km (about
112 mi), and its tidal shoreline, which includes land bordering
inlets and coasts of islands, measures some 5335 km (some 3315 mi).
Virginia can be divided into five geographical regions.
About one-fifth
of the state is underlaid by a wedge of sands, silts, and clays and
forms the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The region E and S of Chesapeake
Bay is flat, with no point more than 30 m (about 100 ft) above sea
level. The E portion consists of the Eastern Shore, the S part of
the Delmarva Peninsula. The W part, which includes four necks, or
peninsulas, separated by estuaries tributary to the bay, is more
rugged, with hills about 60 to 90 m (about 200 to 300 ft) high.
Soils of the Coastal Plain, which is also known as the Tidewater
region, are generally infertile. The region has many marshes and
swamps, including a section of Great Dismal Swamp in the SE.
About one-third of Virginia is part of the Piedmont Plateau,
which is underlaid by metamorphic and igneous rocks. The topography
of its E part is much like that of the W Atlantic Coastal Plain,
whereas the W part has many isolated hills rising as high as 200
m (655 ft) above the surrounding land. The E edge of the region
is marked by the fall line, at which rivers flowing E to the lower-lying
Coastal Plain form rapids and waterfalls. Piedmont soils contain
more clay and are slightly more fertile than those of the Coastal
Plain. The Blue Ridge region is made up of a narrow belt of metamorphic
rocks forming a complex upland with the highest peaks in the state,
Mt. Rogers and Whitetop Mt. The region is very narrow in the N and
includes a wider plateau S of Roanoke.
The Valley and Ridge Region is underlaid by folded sedimentary
rocks; sandstones form ridges as high as 455 m (1500 ft) above the
adjacent valleys developed on limestones and shales. The region
includes the Valley of Virginia, or Great Valley, made up of several
river valleys, the largest being the Shenandoah Valley in the N.
The Cumberland Mts. region, part of the Allegheny Plateau, resembles
the Valley and Ridge Region, except that the uplands are more extensive
than the valleys. Soils in the Valley and Ridge and Cumberland Mts.
regions are shallow and infertile, except where they have developed
on limestones.
Most of Virginia is drained E toward Chesapeake Bay or the Atlantic
Ocean by the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, James, and Roanoke (Staunton)
rivers. The Shenandoah R., one of the tributaries of the Potomac,
drains the N part of the state. Southwest Virginia is drained W toward
the Ohio R. by the New R. or toward the Tennessee R. by the Clinch and Holston rivers.
The state’s largest body of water is Chesapeake Bay,
with an area in Virginia of some 3915 sq km (some 1510 sq mi). Virginia
has few big natural freshwater lakes; Lake Drummond, the biggest,
lies at the center of Great Dismal Swamp in the SE Atlantic Coastal
Plain. A number of major artificial lakes are formed by dams on
rivers, including John H. Kerr Reservoir and Smith Mt. Lake, both
on the Roanoke R.
Virginia has a humid subtropical climate, except in the NW,
where the climate is humid temperate. The climate varies from area
to area, but average temperatures generally decrease from SE to
NW. Two areas are particularly distinct. The climate of the SE Atlantic
Coastal Plain, moderated by the Atlantic Ocean, has fewer hot and
cold days, less snowfall, and a longer growing season than is typical
in the rest of the state. The Cumberland Mts. region, because of
its altitude, has fewer hot days, more cold days, and more snowfall
than most parts of Virginia. Norfolk, in the SE Atlantic Coastal
Plain, has an average January temperature of about 4.7° C
(about 40.5° F) and an average July temperature of about
25.8° C (about 78.5° F); Pennington Gap, in the
mountainous SW, has a mean January temperature of about 2.2° C
(about 36° F) and a mean July temperature of about 23.1° C
(about 73.5° F). The recorded temperature in Virginia has
ranged from –34.4° C (–30° F),
in 1985 at Mountain Lake Biological Station in the SW, to 43.3 ° C
(110° F), in 1900 at Columbia and in 1954 at Balcony Falls.
Virginia’s mean annual precipitation ranges from
about 915 mm (about 36 in) to about 1270 mm (about 50 in) in different
parts of the state. As a rule, yearly precipitation is heaviest
in the SE and SW and lightest in the N and W. Mean annual snowfall
increases westward from less than about 178 mm (about 7 in) in the
SE to about 815 mm (about 32 in) in the Cumberland Mts. region.
The state is rarely struck by damaging tornadoes or hurricanes.
| VIRGINIA AVERAGE CLIMATE |
| |
Richmond |
Norfolk |
| Average January temperature range |
–2.2° to 8.3° C |
28° to 47° F |
0° to 9.4° C |
32° to 49° F |
| Average July temperature range |
20.1° to 31.1° C |
68° to 88° F |
21.1° to 30.6° C |
70° to 87° F |
| Average annual temperature |
14.4° C |
58° F |
15° C |
59° F |
| Average annual precipitation |
1092 mm |
43 in |
1143 mm |
45 in |
| Average annual snowfall |
356 mm |
14 in |
178 mm |
7 in |
| Mean number of days per year with appreciable precipitation |
113 |
115 |
| Average daily relative humidity |
68% |
68% |
| Mean number of clear days per year |
103 |
110 |
About three-fifths of Virginia is forested. Oak-pine
forests
occur in the Atlantic Coastal Plain and on the Piedmont Plateau, and
oak-tulip tree and beech-tulip-maple-basswood forests occur
farther W. Common trees of the state include red, white, chestnut, and
willow oak; shagbark, pignut, bitternut, and mockernut hickory;
loblolly, Virginia, shortleaf, and pitch pine; tulip tree; sweet
gum; red maple; and beech. George Washington and Jefferson national
forests are in the W half of the state. Among Virginia’s
flowering plants are dogwood, mountain laurel, rhododendron, trailing
arbutus, and violet.
White-tailed deer, red and gray fox, raccoon, skunk,
opossum,
cottontail rabbit, groundhog, gray squirrel, and muskrat occur
throughout
Virginia. Black bear are found in the most mountainous areas in
the W. Game birds of Virginia include ducks, geese, quail, ruffed
grouse, and wild turkey. Chesapeake Bay is a major wintering area
for waterfowl. The waters of the bay and the Atlantic Ocean are
inhabited by blue crabs, oysters, scallops, striped bass, menhaden,
bluefish, flounder, drum, Norfolk spot, and other fish. Bass, catfish,
perch, and sunfish are among the species in freshwater streams and
ponds.
Coal and building stone (such as granite and limestone) are
the principal mineral resources of Virginia. The major coal beds
are in the Cumberland Mts., with less significant deposits in the
Valley and Ridge and Piedmont Plateau regions. Granite is found
along the E and W fringes of the Piedmont Plateau, and limestone
occurs throughout the Valley and Ridge Region. Other important mineral
resources of the state include sand and gravel, natural gas, lime,
clay, lead, zinc, kyanite, feldspar, gypsum, talc, uranium, and
vermiculite.
According to the 2000 census, Virginia had
7,078,515inhabitants,
an increase of 14.4% over 1990. The average population
density in 2000 was 178.8 people per sq mi of land area. Whites
made up 72.3% of the population and blacks 19.6%.
Additional population groups included 21,172 American Indians, 261,025
Asians, and 3946 Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders. (These
figures
do not include the 2.0% of the population who reported
more than one race.) A total of 329,540 persons reported being of
Hispanic background. The state’s largest cities were Virginia
Beach; Norfolk; Chesapeake; Richmond, the capital; and Newport News.
According to the 1990 census, Baptists (31.2%), Methodists
(13.1%), and Roman Catholics (12.2%) formed the
largest religious groups in the state. In 1990 about 69% of
all Virginians lived in areas defined as urban and the rest lived
in rural areas. .
| POPULATION OF VIRGINIA SINCE 1790 |
| Year of Census |
Population |
Classified As Urban |
| *1790 |
692,000 |
2% |
| *1820 |
938,000 |
4% |
| *1850 |
1,119,000 |
8% |
| 1880 |
1,513,000 |
13% |
| 1900 |
1,854,000 |
18% |
| 1920 |
2,309,000 |
29% |
| 1940 |
2,678,000 |
35% |
| 1960 |
3,967,000 |
56% |
| 1980 |
5,347,000 |
66% |
| 1990 |
6,187,358 |
69% |
| 2000 |
7,078,515 |
-- |
| Does not include area of West Virginia, separated from Virginia in 1863. |
| POPULATION OF TEN LARGEST CITIES IN VIRGINIA |
| |
2000 Census |
1990 Census |
| Virginia Beach |
425,257 |
393,069 |
| Norfolk |
234,403 |
261,229 |
| Chesapeake |
199,184 |
151,976 |
| Richmond |
197,790 |
203,056 |
| Newport News |
180,150 |
170,045 |
| Hampton |
146,437 |
133,793 |
| Alexandria |
128,283 |
111,183 |
| Portsmouth |
100,565 |
103,907 |
| Roanoke |
94,911 |
96,397 |
| Lynchburg |
65,269 |
66,049 |
Virginia has a comprehensive educational system, a variety
of cultural institutions, and numerous places of historical interest.
The first free school in the U.S. was the Syms Free
School
in Hampton, Va., founded in 1634. Although Gov. Thomas Jefferson
submitted a bill to the Virginia General Assembly in 1779 proposing
that free education be made available to all children, it was not
until 1851 that a new state constitution provided for taxes to finance
free primary schools. Blacks and whites attended separate public
schools
in Virginia until the 1960s, when the state began to comply with
a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling such racially segregated
schools unconstitutional. In the late 1980s Virginia had 1779 public
elementary and secondary schools; total yearly enrollment in the
elementary
schools was about 712,300 pupils, and in the secondary schools,
273,000 students. In addition, some 70,600 children attended private
schools.
Virginia’s oldest institution of higher education, and
the second oldest in the U.S., is the College of William and
Mary, founded in 1693 in Williamsburg. In the late 1980s Virginia
had 78 institutions of higher education with a combined annual
enrollment
of some 344,300 students. Besides William and Mary, notable schools
included the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville; Washington and
Lee University (1749) and Virginia Military Institute (1839),
in Lexington; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
(1872), in Blacksburg; Virginia State University (1882), in Petersburg;
the University of Richmond (1830) and Virginia Commonwealth University
(1838), in Richmond; James Madison University (1908) and Eastern
Mennonite College and Seminary (1917), in Harrisonburg; Randolph-Macon
College (1830), in Ashland; Lynchburg College (1903) and Randolph-Macon
Woman’s College (1891), in Lynchburg; Norfolk State University
(1935) and Old Dominion University (1930), in Norfolk; Hampden-Sydney
College (1776), in Hampden-Sydney; Sweet Briar College (1901), in
Sweet Briar; Roanoke College (1842), in Salem; and Hollins College
(1842), near Roanoke.
Virginia has a number of fine museums. These include the Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts, the country’s oldest state-supported
museum, and the Museum of the Confederacy, in Richmond; the Abby
Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, containing a large collection
of American folk art, in Williamsburg; the Chrysler Museum of Art
at Norfolk, with exhibits of European and American painting and
sculpture; the Museum of the Geological Sciences, in Blacksburg;
the Mariners Museum, in Newport News; the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Museum; and the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts. Diverse programs are
presented at the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts, in
Vienna, a unit of the National Park Service. Also of note are the
Theatre of Virginia, in Richmond; the Barksdale Theater, near Richmond;
the Barter Theatre, in Abingdon; Mill Mountain Theatre, in Roanoke;
the Wayside Theatre, in Middleton; and the Wells Theater, in Norfolk.
Other important performing-arts groups are the Virginia Opera Association,
headquartered in Norfolk, and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. Major
libraries in Virginia include the state library in Richmond and
the libraries of the University of Virginia and the College of William and
Mary.
Virginia contains many notable historical sites. Colonial
National Historical Park includes Jamestown Island (once a peninsula),
site of one of the first English settlements in North America, as
well as Yorktown, scene of the culminating battle, in 1781, of the
American Revolution. Events of the American Civil War are commemorated
at Manassas National Battlefield Park, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania
County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park, Richmond National
Battlefield Park, Petersburg National Battlefield, and Appomattox
Court House National Historical Park, where, on April 9, 1865, near
the end of the Civil War, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered the largest
field army of the Confederacy to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
Also of much historical interest are George Washington Birthplace
National Monument, near Colonial Beach, and Mount Vernon, Washington’s
estate and burial place, near Alexandria. Additional sites in Virginia associated
with prominent Americans include Monticello (1809), the estate of
President Thomas Jefferson, Montpelier (c. 1760), the home of President
James Madison, and Ash Lawn (1799), the home of President James
Monroe—all in the Charlottesville area; Gunston Hall (1775),
the home of George Mason, a framer of the U.S. Constitution, near
Alexandria; the home of Chief Justice John Marshall (built 1790),
in Richmond; Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, in Arlington;
Booker T. Washington National Monument, including the site of the
childhood home of the noted educator, in Hardy, near Roanoke—both
units of the National Park Service; the birthplace of President
Woodrow Wilson, in Staunton; and the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Memorial,
in Norfolk. Other places of great historical interest are Colonial
Williamsburg, a meticulous restoration of 18th-century Williamsburg,
then the colonial capital, and Arlington National Cemetery, which
contains the graves of many famous Americans and the Tomb of the
Unknowns.
Virginia’s ocean shoreline, rivers and lakes, and
mountains offer varied opportunities for swimming, fishing, boating,
tennis, golf, horseback riding, hunting, hiking, and skiing. Shenandoah
State Park, in NW Virginia, has excellent hiking trails. Virginia
Beach is a popular resort on the Atlantic Ocean.
In the early 1990s Virginia had 145 AM and 133 FM radiobroadcasting
stations and 36 television stations. The first commercial radiobroadcasting
station in the state, WTAR in Norfolk, began operations in 1923.
WTVR in Richmond, Virginia’s first commercial television station,
went on the air in 1948. The Virginia Gazette,
the first newspaper published in Virginia, was initially printed
in Williamsburg in 1736. In the early 1990s Virginia had 34 daily
newspapers with a total daily circulation of more than 2.5 million.
Influential dailies included the Richmond Times-Dispatch;
the Daily Press, published in Newport News; the Virginian-Pilot,
published in Norfolk; and the Roanoke Times & World-News. USA
Today, which has a national circulation of more than 1.3
million, is published in Arlington.
Virginia is governed under a constitution adopted in 1970 and put into effect in 1971, as amended. Five earlier constitutions
had been adopted, in 1776, 1830, 1851, 1869, and 1902. Amendments
to the constitution may be proposed by the legislature or by a constitutional
convention. To become effective, an amendment must be approved by
a majority of the persons voting on the issue in a general election.
The chief executive of Virginia is a governor, who is popularly
elected to a 4-year term and may not serve two consecutive terms.
The lieutenant governor, who succeeds the governor should the latter
resign, die, or be removed from office, is also elected to a 4-year
term but may be reelected to any number of consecutive terms. The
attorney general is popularly elected, but officials such as the secretary
of the commonwealth, adjutant general, treasurer, and comptroller
are appointed by the governor.
The bicameral Virginia legislature, called the General Assembly,
is the oldest representative legislative body in the U.S. It is
made up of a senate and a house of delegates; the 40 members of
the senate are elected to 4-year terms, and the 100 members of the
house are elected to 2-year terms.
Virginia’s highest tribunal, the supreme court, is
composed of seven justices who serve 12-year terms. The state’s
major trial courts, called circuit courts, have a total of 131 judges who
serve 8-year terms. Judges of the supreme court and circuit courts,
as well as judges of general district and juvenile and domestic
relations district courts, are elected by the legislature.
In the early 1990s Virginia had 95 counties, 41
independent cities, and 189 incorporated towns. Counties, except
Arlington, which had
a county board, were typically governed by a board of supervisors.
Most counties also elected a commissioner of revenue, treasurer,
sheriff, commonwealth’s attorney, and county clerk. The
cities in Virginia are unusual in that they are independent of county
government; some cities do serve as county seats, however.
Virginia elects 2 senators and 11 representatives to the U.S.
Congress. The state has 13 electoral votes in presidential elections.
Virginians have wielded great influence in national
politics, especially in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. From
the 1880s to the late 1960s the Democratic party dominated state
politics, with Harry Flood Byrd (who represented Virginia in the U.S.
Senate from 1933 to 1965) playing a major role. John W. Warner (1927-
), a Republican, who was secretary of the navy (1972-74) and has
represented Virginia in the Senate since 1979, is an influential voice
on national defense policy. Virginia has usually voted Republican in
presidential elections since the early 1950s. Democrats controlled the
governorship throughout the 1980s, but Republicans won the
gubernatorial elections of 1993 and 1997. Democrats regained the
governorship in the 2001 election, while Republicans held control of
both houses of the state legislature through the early 2000s.
The Virginia economy was mainly agricultural until the 20th
century, when manufacturing became the leading goods-producing industry.
In the early 1990s farming remained an important aspect of the economy, as
were commerce, tourism, and other service industries and mining.
In addition, Virginia benefited from its large U.S. military facilities,
located especially in the Hampton Roads area of the lower James
R., in Petersburg, and in Arlington. Many Virginians were employed
by the federal government in the Washington, D.C., area.
| VIRGINIA STATE ECONOMY (early 1990s) |
| STATE BUDGET |
| General revenue |
$11.6 billion |
| General expenditure |
$11.9 billion |
| Accumulated debt |
$6.1 billion |
 |
| STATE AND LOCAL TAXES, PER CAPITA |
$1896 |
| PERSONAL INCOME, PER CAPITA |
$15,713 |
| POPULATION BELOW POVERTY LEVEL |
10.2% |
| ASSETS, INSURED COMMERCIAL BANKS (182) |
$67.1 billion |
|
| LABOR FORCE (CIVILIAN NONFARM) |
2,864,000 |
| Employed in services |
25% |
| Employed in wholesale and retail trade |
23% |
| Employed in government |
20% |
| Employed in manufacturing |
15% |
|
| MAJOR INDUSTRIES |
% CONTRIBUTED TO GSP* |
| Commercial, financial, and professional services |
48% |
| Manufacturing and construction |
23% |
| Government |
18% |
| Transportation, communications, and public utilities |
9% |
| Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries |
1% |
| Mining |
1% |
* Gross State Product = total value of goods and services produced in a year.
Sources: U.S. government publications |
| PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF VIRGINIA (early 1990s) |
|
Quantity Produced |
Value |
| FARM PRODUCTS |
|
$2.1 billion |
|
| CROPS |
|
$741 million |
| Hay |
2.4 million metric tons |
$230 million |
| Tobacco |
50,000 metric tons |
$188 million |
| Peanuts |
136,000 metric tons |
$100 million |
| Soybeans |
457,000 metric tons |
$96 million |
| Corn |
927,000 metric tons |
$91 million |
|
| LIVESTOCK AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS |
|
$1.4 billion |
| Cattle |
275,000 metric tons |
$421 million |
| Milk |
899,000 metric tons |
$301 million |
| Chickens (broilers) |
400,000 metric tons |
$295 million |
| Hogs |
80,000 metric tons |
$94 million |
|
| MINERALS |
|
$1.7 billion |
| Coal |
38.8 million metric tons |
$1.2 billion |
| Stone |
58.1 million metric tons |
$328 million |
| Sand, gravel |
11.7 million metric tons |
$50 million |
| Natural gas |
507.9 million cu m |
$39 million |
| Lime |
745,000 metric tons |
$38 million |
|
| FISHING |
314,000 metric tons |
$100 million |
|
| |
|
Annual Payroll |
| MANUFACTURING |
|
$10.8 billion |
| Transportation equipment |
|
$1.4 billion |
| Apparel and textile mill products |
|
$1.0 billion |
| Chemicals and allied products |
|
$988 million |
| Printing and publishing |
|
$843 million |
| Electronic equipment |
|
$663 million |
| Food and kindred products |
|
$648 million |
| Industrial machinery and equipment |
|
$618 million |
| Instruments and related products |
|
$529 million |
|
| OTHER |
|
$54.5 billion |
| Government |
|
$18.7 billion |
| Services |
|
$14.0 billion |
| Retail trade |
|
$5.9 billion |
| Construction |
|
$3.9 billion |
| Transportation, communications, and public utilities |
|
$3.8 billion |
| Finance,insurance, and real estate |
|
$3.8 billion |
| Wholesale trade |
|
$3.4 billion |
| Sources: U.S. government publications |
Virginia has long been an important producer of tobacco and
other cash crops, but in the late 1980s about two-thirds of its
farm income of approximately $2.1 billion derived from
the sale of livestock and livestock products; the remaining came
from sales of crops. The state has about 45,000 farms, with an average
size of 79 ha (196 acres). Overall, the leading farm commodities
are beef cattle, dairy products, hay, tobacco, and broiler chickens.
In addition, Virginia produces considerable quantities of hogs, sheep,
wool, chicken eggs, and turkeys. A noted product is Smithfield ham,
made from hogs fed a special diet of peanuts. Other major crops
include peanuts, soybeans, corn, wheat, barley, potatoes, sweet
potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, and peaches.
The rich farmlands in the Shenandoah Valley of N Virginia
produce the most livestock as well as large amounts of apples. The
S counties of Pittsylvania, Halifax, and Mecklenburg dominate in
tobacco production. Soybeans and peanuts are grown mainly in the
SE part of the Piedmont Plateau region, and vegetables are largely
produced in the E part of the state. Dairy farms are located throughout
most of Virginia.
Forests cover about 61% of Virginia’s land
area, and each year substantial amounts of timber are cut. Oak,
yellow poplar, hickory, and tupelo are the most important hardwoods,
and yellow pine, white pine, and cypress are common softwoods. In
total volume of yearly production, yellow pine leads, with oak next
in line. About half the state’s production is in sawlogs
or veneer logs and half is in pulpwood.
Virginia generally ranked among the top ten commercial fishing
states in the late 1980s, with a catch worth $100 million.
Major centers for fishing are Hampton-Norfolk, Chincoteague, and
Cape Charles-Oyster, and the state has many other commercial-fishing
communities, especially along the Tidewater shore in E Virginia.
The most valuable part of the catch is shellfish, particularly scallops,
clams, and crabs. Flounder, bluefish, sea trout, and menhaden also
are caught in significant numbers.
The mining industry is important to Virginia’s economy;
the mineral output has a value of about $1.7 billion annually.
Bituminous coal is by far the leading mineral product. The SW counties
of Buchanan, Wise, and Dickerson lead in production. More than 80% of
the coal comes from underground mines. Other major mineral products
include crushed and dimension stone, sand and gravel, natural gas,
lime, clay, cement, fuller’s earth, iron oxide pigments, and
vermiculite. Virginia is a leading producer of aplite, kyanite, and
crushed slate.
One of the leading components of the Virginia economy is manufacturing.
More than 425,000 persons are employed by manufacturing concerns;
the yearly value of shipments in the late 1980s was nearly $52
billion, and the value added by manufacture exceeded $26 billion.
Virginia’s leading manufactures include transportation equipment, apparel and textile mill products, chemicals and chemical
products, printed materials, electronic equipment, and processed
foods. Also of economic importance is the fabrication of metal items,
machinery, furniture, lumber, and rubber and plastic products. Richmond
is the dominant center of manufacturing in Virginia. Other manufacturing
hubs include Newport News (noted for shipbuilding), Lynchburg, Norfolk,
Portsmouth, Roanoke, Bristol, Danville, and Suffolk.
The travel industry in Virginia generates $8.2 billion
in income annually and provides more than 155,000 jobs. The state
has an abundance of tourist attractions, including the natural beauty
of its ocean beaches, river valleys, and mountain ridges and its
rich endowment of historical places dating back to the beginning
of English settlement at Jamestown. Very popular are Shenandoah
National Park, with its Skyline Drive along a crest of the Blue
Ridge; Luray Caverns, with large and colorful underground formations,
near Luray; and Natural Bridge, a high limestone arch spanning the
waters of Cedar Creek, near Lexington. Virginia maintains a system
of 37 state parks and recreation areas. The N part of the state
serves as a tourist gateway to Washington, D.C.
Virginia is served by an extensive transport system. It has
about 108,950 km (about 67,700 mi) of roads, including 1680 km (1044
mi) of interstate highways. Interstate routes 81 and 95 are major
N-S arteries. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel links the Norfolk
region with the Eastern Shore area of the Delmarva Peninsula, and
a number of other bridges cross the major rivers of the E part of
the state. Virginia’s first railroad began operations in
1831 in the Richmond area. The state has about 5215 km (about 3240
mi) of Class I railroad track; Richmond is the leading rail hub.
The Hampton Roads area, which includes Norfolk, Newport News, and
Portsmouth, is a leading seaport of the U.S. Other major ports are
Alexandria, on the Potomac R., and Richmond, on the James R. The
state is served by a section of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.
Virginia has 235 airports and 90 heliports. The busiest air terminals
are Dulles International Airport and Washington National Airport,
both near Washington, D.C.
Virginia produces about 47.2 billion kwh of electricity per
year from an installed capacity of some 14.9 million kw. About half
of the power is generated in nuclear installations, and most of
the remainder comes from conventional facilities using fossil fuels.
Indian peoples in precolonial Virginia included Cherokee tribes
in the west, the Susquehanna north of Chesapeake Bay, and the Algonquians
of the Powhatan Confederacy, who hunted, fished, and farmed along the
tidal rivers of the Chesapeake. This Algonquian state—led
by a chief whom the Europeans called an emperor—was strong
enough to expel a Spanish mission established on the York River
in 1570. When the English appeared on the James River in 1607, however,
the Indians hesitated, allowing the new invaders’ foothold
at Jamestown to grow into a permanent settlement. The Powhatans
were unable to dislodge the English when they finally mobilized
to do so in 1622 and again in 1644.
The society that eventually displaced them was the first permanent
English colony in North America. As such, it introduced many features
that became either temporarily or permanently characteristic of
American life, including the enslavement of black Africans, tobacco
cultivation, plantation agriculture, county government, and an elected
legislature. Blacks were first brought to Virginia in 1619. Although
at first they were treated like white indentured servants, by 1670
lifetime slave status had become hereditary for blacks, and large
plantations were replacing small farms as the basic unit for growing
tobacco. County governments were first instituted in 1634 and gradually
came to be dominated by the same wealthy and related families that
owned the largest plantations and the most slaves.
Representatives to the General Assembly, which first met in
1619, were elected on a county-by-county basis. After 1670, voting
was limited to property owners. In 1699 the capital was moved from
Jamestown to Williamsburg. The lower house of the assembly grew
powerful after 1700 as the means by which the leading families and
landowners debated and directed the colony’s internal affairs.
When the British government after 1750 asserted its authority to
levy taxes and control land policies, the Virginia leadership resisted and then rebelled.
When Virginia’s leaders joined with rebels in other colonies
to challenge the British in 1775, they received support from all
Virginians except for a small group of white Loyalists and some
black slaves who took up arms for the king in exchange for a promise
of freedom. Except on its western frontier, the state was relatively
free from military action until the Revolution’s last campaign.
Then British forces swept through southern and central Virginia
before falling into a trap set by American and French forces at
Yorktown (Oct. 19, 1781), which finally brought the war to an end.
Unity and tranquillity at home allowed Virginians to take the lead
in national affairs. While George Washington led the colonies’ army,
his fellow Virginians Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Thomas
Jefferson mobilized political support for American independence.
George Mason’s Bill of Rights, added to the Virginia constitution
in 1776, became a model for those of other states and for the federal
constitution. Another Virginian, George Rogers Clark, led a daring
expedition that seized control of the Ohio Valley from Britain in 1778.
Later Jefferson drafted the law by which Virginia ceded this large
territory to the federal government, under which it was divided
to form the states of the present Midwest.
Led by Washington, Mason, and James Madison, Virginians were
in the forefront of the movement to create a new federal constitution
in 1787, and Patrick Henry became its most influential critic. After
the government was set up, Virginia provided four of the first five
presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and James Monroe) and
Chief Justice of the U.S. John Marshall.
Few places in modern history have produced so many
brilliant and effective political leaders as 18th-century Virginia. A
decline
from this level of leadership was inevitable, but it was hastened
by an agricultural depression—which damaged the state’s
tobacco economy between 1819 and 1850—and by population changes.
Public life was marked by sectional conflict as the leaders of growing
western Virginia pressed for democratic reforms that were opposed
by the leaders of stagnating eastern Virginia. The best-known
19th-century
Virginians excelled in fields other than politics: They included
the soldiers Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and J. E. B. Stuart;
the oceanographer Matthew F. Maury; the writer Edgar Allan Poe; and the
educator Booker T. Washington. Four additional presidents
were born in Virginia, but three of them—William H. Harrison,
Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson—pursued their careers
in other states.
Despite its decline, Virginia retained enough of its old prestige
so that southern nationalists from the Deep South worked hard to
draw Virginia into the Confederacy and, when they succeeded, moved
the Confederate capital from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, which
had replaced Williamsburg as Virginia’s capital. Virginia
paid a high price for this honor, becoming the scene of much of
the fighting during the war. When the American Civil War ended with
Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, much of
the state was devastated, and 15,000 Virginia soldiers had been
killed. A Unionist minority had broken away to create West Virginia,
which cost Virginia one-third of its territory and 300,000 of its
people. One result of this loss was that Virginia did not develop
the coalition between white Unionists and black voters that characterized
some other southern states during Reconstruction. After a brief
period of military rule, Virginia politics returned to the conservative
leadership of the prewar era. The threat of fusion between black
political leaders and discontented white leaders occurred in the
1880s and ’90s, but it was ended in 1902, when a new state
constitution disfranchised blacks and reduced the white voter participation
to one of the lowest levels in the nation.
After 1900 Virginia rebounded from the poverty of the
postwar era and developed a diversified economy and society centered in
the cities of Richmond, Norfolk, and Roanoke and in the northern
Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. The territory that had been fought
over in the Civil War became part of an urban-industrial network
stretching from Norfolk northward into New England. It thus came as a
shock to many Virginians when the honest but old-fashioned political
machine led by U.S. Senator Harry Flood Byrd campaigned for massive
resistance to the 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing racial
segregation in public schools. State authorities closed the schools in
four cities in 1958 rather than admit black pupils, but backed down in
1959, when the potential cost of resistance became clear. Desegregation
in schools and in other areas of life increased in subsequent decades,
as the economy grew and state politics became more lively and
competitive. In 1989, Virginians made Democrat L. Douglas Wilder (1931-
) the first elected black governor in U.S. history. Ten years later,
the resurgent Republicans, led by Gov. Jim Gilmore (1949- ), captured
both legislative chambers for the first time in the history of the
commonwealth. The centerpiece of Gilmore's governorship was a phaseout
of the property tax on automobiles; the reduction in the car tax,
coupled with a general economic slowdown, contributed to a budget
crisis that led to the election of a Democratic successor, Mark R.
Warner (1954- ), in November 2001.