Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia (Illustrated)

"The Commonwealth of Virginia is located in the eastern part of the United States, approximately midway between the North and the South, and it is classified geographically as a South Atlantic State. The shape of the state suggests an irregular triangle: the base of the triangle, the southern boundary of the state which divides it from North Carolina and Tennessee; the left side or western side, dominated by the Blue Ridge, the Appalachian and the Allegheny Mountains; and the right side or eastern side, the Coastal Plain.
Virginia is bounded on the north by West Virginia, Maryland and the Potomac River which forms the boundary between Virginia and Maryland and Virginia and the District of Columbia; on the east by the Potomac River, Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by North Carolina and Tennessee; and on the west by Kentucky and West Virginia.
The area of the state is approximately 40,815 square miles. This area places Virginia thirty-sixth in rank in area among the States of the Union. Approximately 2,000 square miles of this area consist of water. The southern boundary extends approximately 450 miles from east to west and the distance from north to south is approximately 200 miles at its widest point. The geographical center of Virginia is at a point eleven miles south of east of the town of Amherst in Appomattox County. The highest point is Mount Rogers located in Smyth and Grayson Counties with an elevation of 5,719 feet. The lowest altitude is sea level along the Atlantic Coast. The average elevation of the state is 950 feet.
Topographically, Virginia may be conveniently divided into five major regions:
(1) the South Atlantic Coastal Plain—As the name suggests, this region extends along the coast from the Atlantic Ocean to the Fall Line Zone. The Fall Line Zone refers to a section where the streams pass from the rocky areas[12] of the mountain region or high land to the level area or low land; at such points, falls or rapids develop. The Great Falls of the Potomac in Maryland and in Virginia, the Falls of the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, the rapids of the James River at Richmond and the Falls of the Appomattox at Petersburg illustrate the concept of the Fall Line. Consequently, the so-called Fall Line extends from Washington, D. C., through Alexandria, Fredericksburg, Richmond, Petersburg and Emporia in Virginia. Thus, the South Atlantic Coastal Plain region of Virginia is located along the Atlantic seacoast from the Potomac River at Alexandria to the North Carolina boundary line and as far west as the Fall Line Zone. The width of this area varies from 35 miles to 120 miles. This region is also called ""Tidewater"" Virginia because the level land here is so low that the ocean tides may often be seen in the inland streams. ""Tidewater"" Virginia includes five peninsulas formed by the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac, the Rappahannock, the York and the James Rivers. These five peninsulas are:
a. the Eastern Shore—Although most of Tidewater Virginia is located on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay, a unique peninsula called the Eastern Shore extends southward from Maryland and is separated from the rest of Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. Thus, in order to travel by land from the mainland of eastern Virginia to the Eastern Shore, it is necessary to travel via Maryland.
b. the Northern Neck—This peninsula lies between the Potomac and the Rappahannock Rivers and is only 22 miles at its widest point.
c. the Middle Peninsula—This peninsula lies between the Rappahannock and the York Rivers.
d. the Peninsula of the Lower York-James Peninsula or the Williamsburg Peninsula—This peninsula is located between the York and James Rivers.
e. the Norfolk Peninsula—This peninsula is located between the James River and the Virginia-North Carolina boundary line. In general, the land in this region is a flat plain. The tidal rivers mentioned previously are actually estuaries of Chesapeake Bay and they flow periodically inland. Therefore, they are an unusual combination of waters from the Bay itself and from the Atlantic Ocean whose pressure pushes the tides inland. The strong influence of geography upon occupations in this region is exemplified by the importance of commercial fishing (especially oysters, scallops, clams and crabs), ocean transportation (the large area of deep water in the Chesapeake Bay encourages ocean-going commercial ships to seek inland ports in this region—especially around Hampton Roads), truck farming (the clay loam soil and the sandy[13] loam soil here provide excellent productivity of potatoes, early vegetables, corn and hay), and the manufacturing of fertilizer (particularly from fish and fish scraps), bricks (an abundance of sand and gravel encourages the making of bricks), pulpwood, railroad ties, barrel staves and other lumber products (60% of the Tidewater area