Norfolk occurs as city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States of America. These are an independent city, and so non involved in any county. Norfolk is one of Virginia's big cities; when of the 2000 census, the city got the aggregate people of 234,403. Still, the recent 2004 census shows that the city's people has since risen to 237,835.

Norfolk is placed on the Elizabeth River, in Hampton Roads, a big natural harbor. These are the section of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, officially known as a Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA.

A city has an extended history as a strategical armed forces & transport point. Norfolk is house to each a Norfolk Navy Base, the world's largest naval base, & a Norfolk Southern Railway, one of North America's principal Class I railroads. It has numerous miles of riverfront & bayfront property, & is linked by using its neighbors across an extensive network of Interstate highways, bridges, tunnels, and bridge-tunnel complexes.

Since a Seventies, a downtown region & waterfront has undergone real resurgence. These are house to the Norfolk Tides, the top International League affiliate of the New York Mets, and a Norfolk Admirals, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks.

History
A places of what is nowadays Norfolk was originally a Chesipean Indian town Skicoak. (A Chesipeans experienced been destroyed by Powhatan by the time of the arrival of the number 1 English settlers, who, inside 1585, settled on Roanoke Island in modern-day North Carolina. Around 1591, the colony of Roanoke disappeared without the trace.) A city was placed call at 1682 and incorporated in 1845. It became an independent city from either Norfolk County in 1871.

Inside 1855, a city suffered an epidemic of yellow fever which killed Single of each Troika citizens. Within 1858, a Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad built by William Mahone was completed to Petersburg, where major connections were mass produced sustaining railroads to points n, west, & south. When you took a US Civil War, in 1862, the Battle of Hampton Roads between the ironclads Monitor and Merrimac was fought off Norfolk. Early in a war, Mahone commanded the city's defenses within a period of the period of Confederate occupation which ended in Will, 1862.

In a late 19th century, the Norfolk and Western Railway established the community as a major coal export port and built the big transloading facility at Lambert's Point. A season 1907 brought a Virginian Railway and the Jamestown Exposition to Sewell's Point. A big naval view at a Exposition demonstrated a favorable location, laying a groundwork for the Norfolk Navy Base which was built there beginning in 1917. A city limits were expanded within 1923 to include Sewell's Point, Willoughby Spit, and Ocean View, adding the Navy Base & miles of beach property fronting in Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay.

Now, Norfolk is getting much of urban renewal. Beginning in the late 1970s, mall-developer James W. Rouse developed Waterside in downtown Norfolk, a festival marketplace concept which helped transform a formerly seedy harbor area into a major catalyst for other redevelopment. Downtown Norfolk is uninfected, attractive & growing quickly. Numerous more areas of Norfolk come existence revitalized, including Ocean Review & East Beach, two on the Chesapeake Bay.

Norfolk features

Norfolk occurs as major military center. Using Portsmouth (directly across a Elizabeth Flow of any stream), it forms an extensive naval complex. A headquarters of the 5th Naval District, the Atlantic Fleet, the 2nd Fleet, and the Supreme Allied Command are at Sewell's Point. A Norfolk Navy Base is the largest naval base in the United States & includes the naval air station & more facilities. Many vessels of the Navy use at times been known as USS Norfolk after the city.

General Douglas MacArthur is buried in the city; there is the small museum for him, & a major shopping mall across the street from either his necropolis is known as for him. A city is page to Old Dominion University, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Norfolk State University; Virginia Wesleyan College, a personal liberal arts college, has a Norfolk mailing location, however well-nigh a lot of its campus lies in the adjacent city of Virginia Beach. A city's public school models is Fivesome highschool, Viii lycee, 34 simple schools, & Ennead favorite-purpose/preschools. Norfolk Academy, founded in Great gross, is the city's oldest common soldier school; Norfolk Collegiate School, another buck private school within Norfolk, has one of a top-ranked high school five in the united states.

Norfolk Southern Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, has its headquarters in downtown Norfolk. A international headquarters of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are located on the city's waterfront good to the west of business district.

Waterside is a popular festival marketplace attraction.

Pronounciation
Numerous longtime residents of Norfolk & Hampton Roads generally pronounce the city's title (IPA) . A "L" around Norfolk is usually simply pronounced by victims from either either more locus & is considered wrong by virtually all humans from a vicinity. Similar pronounciation variations come encountered in the list of more Hampton Roads cities, like Portsmouth and Suffolk.

Geography
Based on data from a United States Census Bureau, the city has the sum front yard of 249.Iv km² (96.3 mi²). 139.Deuce klick² (53.Septenary mi²) of these are l& and 110.Trine kilometer² (42.Sextet mi²) of these are a river. A sum vicinity is 44.22% water supply.

Additionally to extensive riverfront property, Norfolk has miles of bayfront resort property & beaches in the Willoughby Spit and Ocean View communities.

Demographics

When of the censusof 2000, there are 234,403 people, 86,210 house, & 51,898 families living in the city. A population density is 1,684.4/km² (4,362.8/mi²). There are 94,416 housing units at an typical density of 678.5/km² (1,757.3/mi²). A racial makeup of the city is 48.36% White, 44.11% African American, 0.46% Native American, 2.81% Asian, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 1.67% from other races, and 2.48% from two or more races. Trey.80% of the people are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 86,210 house away from which Xxx.3% use at times toddlers under a age of Eighteen accept the children, 36.9% come married couples living together, 18.8% have a female homeowner by having there are no hubby present, & 39.8% come non-families. Xxx.2% of completely home come processed higher of souls & Ix.6% use at times soul dwelling alone world health organization is 65 years aged or even older. A typical family size is Ii.45 & a typical personal size is Iii.07.

A age distribution is Twenty-four.0% under a age of Xviii, Xviii.2% from either 18 to 2 dozen, Twenty-nine.9% from either 25 to 44, Xvi.9% from either 45 to 64, & X.9% world health organization come 65 years aged or even older. A median age is Xxx years. For each Century females there are 104.Sise males. For each Century females age Xviii & ended, there are 104.Viii males.

the median income for a menage in the city is $31,815, & the median income for a personal is $36,891. Males have a median income of $25,848 versus $21,907 for females. A per capita income for the city is $17,372. Nineteen.4% of the people & Fifteen.5% of families come beneath a poverty line. Away from a number people, Xxvii.9% of victims under a age of 18 & 13.2% of victims 65 & older come residing beneath a poverty level.

Transportation

Norfolk is linked by having its neighbors across an extensive network of arterial & Interstate highways, bridges, tunnels, and bridge-tunnel complexes, notably the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel which enters Norfolk at Willoughby Spit. A major east-west routes come Interstate 64, U.S. Highway 58 and U.S. Highway 460. A major n-south routes are U.S. Highway 13 and U.S. Highway 17.

An extensive transit bus system and paratransit services are provided by Hampton Roads Transit, a regional public transport system headquartered in Norfolk. The light rail service is in planning stages.

Norfolk is served by Amtrak via connecting bus with a railway line through Hampton Roads which ends at Newport News, and diarrhea west along a Virginia Peninsula to Richmond. a high speed rail connection at Richmond to two the Northeast Corridor and the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor are also under survey.

Norfolk & a rest of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area (including Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Williamsburg and Poquoson, Virginia) are served by Norfolk International Airport and Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport.

Trivia
A Norfolk Naval Shipyard or "Norfolk Navy Yard" is inside Portsmouth, Virginia. It may not title it a "Portsmouth Naval Shipyard," because there was already one of those within Portsmouth, New Hampshire. South Norfolk occurs as community within Chesapeake. West Norfolk occurs when community around Portsmouth, as is Port Norfolk.

Sister Cities
Norfolk has 5 sister cities, as intended by [http://www.sister-cities.org/ Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI)]: Kaliningrad (Russia), Kitakyushu, Fukuoka (Japan), Norfolk County/Norwich (United Kingdom), Toulon (France), and Wilhelmshaven, Niedersachsen (Germany).