Virginia Beach Travel Guide
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About Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach (colloquially VB) is the most populous city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeastern Virginia. It is the sixth-most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, ninth-most populous in the Southeast, and the 43rd-most populous city in the U.S. with a population of 459,470 at the 2020 census. Virginia Beach is a principal city in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, which has more than 1.8 million inhabitants and is the 37th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Virginia Beach is a resort city with miles of beaches and hundreds of hotels, motels, and restaurants along its oceanfront. Near the point where the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet, Cape Henry was the site of the first landing of the English colonists who eventually settled in Jamestown; modern Virginia Beach was established in 1906. It is home to several state parks, protected beaches, and military bases. Batten University, Regent University, Christian Broadcasting Network, the U.S. headquarters of Stihl, and the Association for Research and Enlightenment are based in Virginia Beach. It also hosts the annual East Coast Surfing Championships and Neptune Festival. The city is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the longest pleasure beach in the world. It is located at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel, which was the world's longest bridge–tunnel complex until the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge opened in 2018.
Virginia Beach fun facts
- Virginia Beach's King Neptune Statue is 34 feet tall and weighs 12 tons, making it one of the largest bronze statues in the United States.
- The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is 23 miles long and was considered one of the most ambitious engineering projects of its time when completed in 1964.
- First Landing State Park is where English colonists first arrived in 1607, three years before they founded Jamestown.
- Virginia Beach has the longest pleasure beach in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records, stretching for 35 miles along the Atlantic.