Original subtitles

(wind whooshing)

(inspirational orchestral music)

(bright orchestral music)

(gentle orchestral music)

- [Narrator] Our journey starts

at the historic town of Williamsburg

before moving on to the James River

and the plantation houses along its banks.

Downstream is Jamestown,

where early English settlers arrived in the 17th century.

From there to the important historical site of Yorktown

and the English surrender to George Washington

at the end of the War of Independence.

To the South is Hampton and the enormous Fort Monroe.

Across the estuary is Norfolk,

the largest Naval Base in the world.

On the coast is the popular resort of Virginia Beach,

overlooking the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.

Our journey ends along the unspoiled peninsula

of creeks and marshes at Assateague Island

and its wild horses.

(bright acoustic guitar music)

The James River runs right across Virginia,

the tenth state to join the Union.

It was named after Elizabeth the First,

the Virgin Queen of England.

And along the river is much of the early history of America

and an important part of it can be seen at Williamsburg.

And in particular, Colonial Williamsburg.

This is an interpretation of a colonial town

where old buildings have been restored

and others that were lost, recreated.

The idea was for visitors to feel the atmosphere

and understand the way of life

of the 18th century colonists and in particular,

to appreciate how the revolutionary leaders

lived their lives.

Visitors are greeted by interpreters in colonial dress

who use the language and diction of the time.

And all the shops and the taverns

are staffed by people dressed from the past.

The modern age is cut out in a 300 acre site.

There are no cars and horse drawn buggies and wagons

drive up and down the streets.

This enormous historical project was begun in the 1930's

with the generous financial help of John D. Rockefeller.

Buildings were rescued and brought to the site

others were restored on their plot of land

and some, like the Governors Palace,

were rebuilt from original plans.

A few, like Bruton Church,

had been standing for nearly 300 years.

And in fact, it was the rector, the Reverend Doctor Goodwin

who started the successful campaign to restore Williamsburg,

after raising money to restore the church.

In the 1920's, he realized

that too many of the old buildings were in a terrible state.

And that unless something was done about it,

they would be lost forever.

He was introduced to the Rockefeller family,

who made a major financial commitment to the project.

It was decided to keep the whole project secret

while old buildings were quietly bought and stored

to avoid inflating the local property prices.

After two years of buying up 18th century houses,

Goodwin and Rockefeller announced

their plans to create Williamsburg.

Today this living museum is one of the State's

top attractions, with around a million visitors a year.

But keeping Williamsburg going is an expensive operation.

And in 2007, it was decided to sell

the nearby plantation house of Carter's Grove,

which John D. Rockefeller had bought in 1969 for the museum.

The house was built in 1755 for Carter Burwell,

and over the next 200 years,

it had a succession of owners

until the Williamsburg Foundation

took over and opened it to the public.

However it was becoming increasingly difficult

to attract sufficient visitor numbers

as the house was 7 miles away from the main museum

and so it was decided to sell it off,

with strict controls to ensure the house

and landscape would be fully protected.

(birds chirping)

Along the James River are many other plantation houses

and Shirley Plantation is the oldest active one in Virginia.

And one of the oldest family owned businesses in America,

dating back to 1614.

The present house dates from 1723

and was built for the Hill family.

It's referred to as the Great House

and is largely still in it's original state.

Tobacco was the main crop and at the time,

the European Market could not get enough of it.

Slaves were used for economic reasons

as cultivating tobacco was very labor intensive

and needed to be produced in large quantities.

In the 18th century, tobacco plantations

spread across the state to satisfy demand.

Slavery was finally abolished in 1865

and those slaves who stayed on,

became hired workers and known as tenant farmers.

(gentle piano music)

Building by the river was prudent,

as this was a main highway for exporting and importing goods

in Virginia until the arrival of the railway.

(gentle orchestral music)

250 years ago, great sailing ships would take tobacco

from this new world to the old world across the Atlantic.

Even today, there's a certain amount of river traffic,

as it is still one of the best ways

of delivering large, heavy loads.

On the East bank is another estate, the Barkley Plantation.

The Harrison family

built this three story brick house in 1726.

It was to be the home of two American Presidents,

William Henry Harrison in 1841

and his son, Benjamin Harrison in 1889.

Barkley is also well known for three events,

the place where the bugle called Taps

was composed and played for the first time in 1862.

(somber trumpet music)

The site where the first bourbon whiskey was distilled

in 1621 and perhaps the most famous event

was when the Barkley Plantation held the first official

Thanksgiving Day in 1619.

This sense of history can be felt all along the river.

As a few miles downstream,

where the Jamestown to Scotland ferry operates

is the first English settlement in America.

It was established by the Virginia Company of London

in 1607, 13 years before the pilgrims on the Mayflower

landed in Massachusetts.

It was here on May the 14th

that 104 men and boys began a settlement

on the banks of the James River

which they named after King James the First.

(bright medieval music)

The site may have been a good ones for ships on the river

but the land was marshy, no good for crops

and plagued with mosquitoes.

And on top of that,

the site was in the middle of a chieftain

of about 14,000 Algonquin Indians.

After several years of hardship,

starvation, disease and Indian attacks,

the colony survived and was to become

America's first permanent English colony.

The statue is of Captain John Smith,

one of the early leaders who is associated with Pocahontas,

the Indian girl who later became a Christian

and married one of the settlers.

John Smith also championed what he named, New England

and said, here every man may be master and owner

of his own labor and land,

if he had nothing but his hands,

he may by industry, quickly grow rich.

Upstream from the original settlement

is a recreated James Fort and harbor,

where visitors can experience what life was like

for the early settlers.

The living museum was built in 1957,

on the 350th anniversary of the first landing.

Here people can learn and experience a number of activities

including tobacco growing,

watching blacksmiths forge metal objects,

practice how to fire a musket and even try on armor.

And in the small harbor, are replicas of the three ships

that the settlers arrived in,

they were the Discovery, the Godspeed

and the Susan Constant, the largest ship of the group.

The ships are seaworthy

and sometimes sail to other historical events.

On board, visitors can experience life at sea,

climb into a sailor's bunk, steer the ship

and learn about handling the rigging.

They can see for themselves the cramped conditions

that the settlers as well as crew had to endure.

It's all too easy in the modern world,

when we can fly across the Atlantic in a few hours

to forget how, back in 1607, it took four and a half months.

(lively marching band music)

15 miles to the East on the York River,

is one of the most important historical sites

in American History because it was here at Yorktown,

on October the 19th, 1778,

that the English General called Cornwallis,

surrendered his forces to George Washington

and effectively ended the American War of Independence.

In August of 1781, Washington learned that the English Army

was encamped at Yorktown.

He marched his army from New York and on the way,

joined up with French forces,

who were his allies against the English.

The bombardment and battle was fiercely fought

and eventually hinged on the English hope of reinforcements,

which did not arrive in time.

And when Cornwallis tried to retreat across the York River

and escape, he lost his boats in a storm.

With little ammunition left, he was forced to surrender.

Although the conflict dragged on for another year,

it was this major English defeat

that eventually saw the old American Colony

become the new United States.

(birds chirping)

It was not until 1884 that the monument at Yorktown,

celebrating the victory was eventually built,

having been authorized a century earlier.

On the top is the figure of Liberty.

(birds chirping)

(gentle flute music)

A few miles to the South is Langley

and one of the oldest continuously working

Air Force Bases in America, which was established in 1916.

In 2010, Langley Air Force Base

was amalgamated with the Army's Fort Eustis,

to become joint base, Langley Eustis.

On the Air Force side, it's home to the 633 Air Base Wing

and the base's mission is to sustain the ability

for fast, global deployment

and air superiority for the United States

or allied armed forces.

Amongst the many aircraft flown from here is the F-15 Eagle,

as well as the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor,

which was introduced in 2005.

However at the cost of around $150 Million dollars

in aircraft, it's future is in jeopardy.

(sweeping orchestral music)

Close by Langley is the enormous, moated Fort Monroe,

built in the 1830's.

At the time it was referred to as,

the Gibraltar of Chesapeake Bay for it's strategic position

on the peninsula guarding the James River

as well as the vast Naval Base at Norfolk,

which is coming up next.

Even though Virginia sided with

the South's Confederate forces during the Civil War,

Fort Monroe remained in the control of Union forces,

indeed, escaped slaves from the South

were offered a safe haven if they could make it to the fort.

It was rearmed during the first and second World Wars

but with the development of long range bombers,

the fort became obsolete.

But it was only in 2011

that Fort Monroe was finally decommissioned.

(intense drumming)

Cruising out to sea on patrol,

past Fort Monroe is the United States Ship Bulkeley,

and Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, commissioned in 2001.

(dramatic orchestral music)

During it's operations in 2011,

the ship had participated in capturing 75 Somali pirates

as part of a combined taskforce.

And launched missiles against targets in Libya.

The USS Bulkeley's home port is Norfolk,

where the US Fleet for the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

as well as the Mediterranean sea is based.

At the entrance to the Elizabeth River is Sewell's Point

and Naval Station Norfolk, which dates back

to when the US entered the First World War in 1917.

It has an 11 kilometer long set of piers and wharves

and can accommodate 75 warships which makes it

the largest concentration of Navy Forces in America

as well as the largest Naval Base in the world.

And before the age of oil, all the ships needed coal

and in vast quantities.

Virginia was and still is rich in coal.

And at Landwards point, is one of the largest

coal trans loading facilities in the world.

Which has a history going back to the 1880's.

Further up the Elizabeth River

is the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, a facility for

building, remodeling and repairing the Navy ships.

It is the oldest such facility in the US

and actually goes back to the days of British rule

when it was founded in 1767 and named Gosport Shipyard.

After the War of Independence, the US Congress passed an act

which took control of the facility.

But the Civil War brought disaster to the yard,

when Virginia joined the Confederacy in 1861,

the Union's supporting Commander ordered it's destruction.

But it was too late and the Southern Army took it over.

But when they in turn were booted out,

they actually did destroy it.

And it was while it was being reconstructed,

back in the hands of the Union forces,

that they named it Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

By the time of World War Two, 43,000 personnel were employed

and close to 7,000 ships were built.

After the war, the shipyard shifted from construction

to repair and today it is one of the few places

where there is a dry dock large enough

to accommodate a nuclear aircraft carrier.

Lying in a permanent birth in the harbor

is the USS Wisconsin, an Iowa class battle ship.

She was launched in 1941, weighed 45,000 tons

and had a formidable array of firepower.

Her biggest guns were 16 inches and there were nine of them.

Which served her well in the Second World War

and the Korean War.

In 1958, she was mothballed into the US Reserve Fleet.

But she was brought out of retirement,

reactivated and modernized in order to take part

in operation Desert Storm during the first Gulf War.

(seagulls calling)

The Wisconsin was finally decommissioned in 1991

and brought here to Norfolk to the National Maritime Center

and opened as a museum.

However, the United States Congress has ordered

that she must not be altered in any way

that could prevent her from becoming active again.

She must be preserved in a good condition

and that the Navy should have a plan

for a rapid reactivation in case she is needed

in a National emergency.

(somber orchestral music)

The city of Norfolk has had a checkered history

and been destroyed several times,

both by enemy as well as by fire.

In 1776, during the War of Independence,

three British Ships sailed into the harbor

and bombarded Norfolk for about eight hours.

Over eight hundred buildings were lost

and most of the city caught fire.

It was only just recovering by 1804

when another fire destroyed 300 buildings,

causing a serious economic setback.

During the Civil War, Norfolk was taken and held

by the Union forces and as at Fort Monroe,

many slaves escaped Confederate lines

and sought freedom in the city

where they were welcomed and schools set up

so that many of them could learn to read and write

for the first time.

It was in 1907 during a Naval review at Sewells Point

at the mouth of the river that it became clear

the potential of the harbor as a Naval base.

By 1917 the Naval dock yard was expanding fast

and the city of Norfolk prospered as a result.

It was a building at the Virginia Beach Boulevard in 1922

from Norfolk to the ocean front

that put the city of Virginia Beach on the map.

It was also the most easily accessible resort in the state.

(gentle jazz music)

One historic building stands out.

It was constructed in the roaring 20's,

in the age of the Charleston, the Cavalier Hotel.

This was one of the first luxury hotels

to be built in Virginia Beach and in 1927,

when it opened its doors, it attracted the rich and famous.

Each room had a special tap for sea water,

as this was considered medically beneficial at the time.

And in every room there was also a tap for ice cold water

which came from a large wooden tub on the roof,

packed with chunks of ice.

And it was not far to go to enjoy a few hours

on the beach in the sun

or shelter behind an umbrella or two.

Virginia Beach is as popular today

as it was over 90 years ago.

To the North is Cape Henry,

overlooking the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.

Where two lighthouses have in turn,

been warning ships of danger for over two hundred years.

The shorter of the two is the earlier lighthouse,

authorized by the fledgling US Government in 1792.

It was also the first Federal construction

under the new constitution.

(gentle classical music)

George Washington, the first President,

took an active interest in the project

and indeed, had a hand in picking

the initial lighthouse keeper.

This historic landmark was built with the same stone

which was used in the White House in Washington.

It is eight sided and rises to around 30 meters.

The light on the top used to be two fish oil burning lamps.

By the 1870's, there were concerns about

the structure's safety and a new, taller lighthouse

was built close by in 1881.

A hundred years later,

it was fully automated and it's still active today.

Cape Henry was named after

the eldest son of King James the First of England in 1607.

Because it was here that the original settlers in the ships,

Godspeed, Discovery and Susan Constant had their landfall

after crossing the Atlantic.

And to mark this event

and also give thanks for a safe crossing,

they erected a simple wooden cross, before heading up river

where they founded the Jamestown Settlement.

This stone cross was set up in 1935

by the Daughters of the American Colonists

and stands close to what is thought to be the original site.

(birds chirping)

In the 1960's, it was decided

to build a bridge across Chesapeake Bay

which would also incorporate two tunnels so that large ships

could get up to Baltimore and other ports.

(gentle music)

There are 19 kilometers of trestle bridge,

two one and a half kilometers long tunnels,

four artificial islands, two high level bridges

and roughly three kilometers of causeway.

Since it opened, the bay bridge tunnel

has been crossed by more than a hundred million vehicles.

The construction cost roughly two hundred million dollars

and was funded entirely by selling bridge bonds

and no public money was spent.

Construction had to cope with

severe weather conditions, including hurricanes

and during the two year building program,

seven workers were killed.

In the 1990's, the trestle bridge sections

were increased to four lanes

but it was considered too expensive to widen the tunnels.

By law the bridge must be checked and serviced

every five years but as it takes five years to complete,

the work never stops.

The bridge joins the main part of Virginia

to a separate peninsula

which is joined to Maryland in the North.

And on the East side is a wild and beautiful landscape,

especially the bays, inlets and grass covered marshes.

(gentle classical music)

And running free

in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge,

are the Assateague horses.

Legend has it, that they descend from the survivors

of a wrecked Spanish galleon in the 16th century.

The total heard figure is around 150

and to keep it to that number,

the mares are given a contraceptive injection.

These white Egrets live happily alongside the horses

as they feed off the insects that surround them.

(birds squawking)

This peaceful scene is a good place to end this journey.

(sweeping orchestral music)

(air whooshing)