Chesapeake, Virginia Chesapeake, Virginia .

Chesapeake, Virginia City of Chesapeake Flag of Chesapeake, Virginia Flag Official seal of Chesapeake, Virginia Chesapeake, Virginia is positioned in the US Chesapeake, Virginia - Chesapeake, Virginia County None (Independent city) Founded 1963 (1919 as South Norfolk, became town/city in 1922) Chesapeake is an autonomous town/city located in the U.S.

As of the 2010 census, the populace was 222,209; in 2013, the populace was estimated to be 232,977, making it the third-most crowded city in Virginia.

Chesapeake is encompassed in the Virginia Beach Norfolk Newport News, VA NC MSA.

One of the metros/cities in the South Hampton Roads, Chesapeake was ordered in 1963 by voter popular votes approving the political consolidation of the town/city of South Norfolk with the remnants of the former Norfolk County, which dated to 1691.

(Much of the territory of the county had been took in by other cities.) Chesapeake is the second-largest town/city by territory area in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Chesapeake is a distinct town/city in which a several urban areas are located; it also has many square miles of protected farmland, forests, and wetlands, including a substantial portion of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.

Extending from the non-urban border with North Carolina to the harbor region of Hampton Roads contiguous to the metros/cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach, Chesapeake is positioned on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

In 2011, Chesapeake was titled the 21st best town/city in America by Bloomberg Businessweek. In 1963, the new autonomous town/city of Chesapeake was created when the former autonomous town/city of South Norfolk merged with Norfolk County.

Formed in 1691 in the Virginia Colony, Norfolk County had originally encompassed essentially all the region which became the suburbs and later metros/cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and South Norfolk.

Becoming an autonomous town/city was a health for the former county to stabilize borders with neighbors, as metros/cities could not annex territory from each other.

The mostly small town/city of South Norfolk had turn into an incorporated town inside Norfolk County in 1919, and became an autonomous town/city in 1922.

Its inhabitants wanted to make a change to put their jurisdiction on a more equal footing in other aspects with the much larger metros/cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth.

In addition, by the late 1950s, although immune from annexation by the bigger cities, South Norfolk was close to losing all the county territory adjoining it to the town/city of Norfolk in another annexation suit.

The consolidation that resulted in the town/city of Chesapeake was part of a wave of shifts in the structure of small-town government in southeastern Virginia which took place between 1952 and 1975.

The Chesapeake region was among the first areas settled in the state's colonial era, when settlement started from the coast.

Along Chesapeake's segment of the Intracoastal Waterway, where the Great Bridge locks marks the transition between the Southern Branch Elizabeth River and the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal, lies the site of the Battle of Great Bridge.

Until the late 1980s and early 1990s, much of Chesapeake was either suburban or rural, serving as a bedroom improve of the contiguous metros/cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach with inhabitants commuting to these locations.

This explosive expansion quickly led to strains on the municipal infrastructure, ranging from intrusion of saltwater into the city's waterworks to congested roads and schools.

According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 351 square miles (910 km2), of which 341 square miles (880 km2) is territory and 10 square miles (26 km2) (2.9%) is water. The northeastern part of the Great Dismal Swamp is positioned in Chesapeake.

Chesapeake is one of the larger metros/cities in Virginia and the country in terms of territory area.

This poses challenges to town/city leaders in supporting transit framework to serve this area.

Virginia Beach, Virginia (east) Chesapeake is formally divided politically into six boroughs: South Norfolk, Pleasant Grove, Butts Road, Deep Creek, Washington, and Western Branch. Of the current boroughs, one, South Norfolk, was formerly a separate incorporated town and autonomous town/city for much of the 20th century.

South Norfolk (South Norfolk Borough) According to Chesapeake's 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the town/city are: 1 Chesapeake City Public Schools 5,726 2 City of Chesapeake 3,167 Other papers include the Port Folio Weekly, the New Journal and Guide, and the Hampton Roads Business Journal. Hampton Roads Magazine serves as a bi-monthly county-wide magazine for Chesapeake and the Hampton Roads area. Hampton Roads Times serves as an online periodical for all the Hampton Roads metros/cities and counties.

Chesapeake is served by a range of airways broadcasts on the AM and FM dials, with towers positioned around the Hampton Roads area. Chesapeake is also served by a several tv stations.

Chesapeake inhabitants also can receive autonomous stations, such as WSKY transmitting on channel 4 from the Outer Banks of North Carolina and WGBS-LD transmitting on channel 11 from Hampton.

Chesapeake is served by Cox Communications which provides LNC 5, a small-town 24-hour cable news tv network.

The Chesapeake and Albemarle Railroad is a shortline barns in Chesapeake.

Funding for extra and replacement highways, bridges, and other transit infrastructure is one of the primary issues facing Chesapeake and much of the Hampton Roads region in the 21st century, as transit framework originally assembled with toll revenues has aged without a origin of financing to repair them or build replacements.

Tolls in Chesapeake are presently limited to the Chesapeake Expressway and the Veterans Bridge, but new ones may be imposed on some existing facilities to help generate revenue for transit projects in the region.

Chesapeake is served by the close-by Norfolk International Airport in the City of Norfolk with commercial airline traveler service.

Within the town/city limits, Chesapeake Regional Airport is a general aviation facility positioned just south of Great Bridge.

Also inside the city, is the Hampton Roads Executive Airport positioned near Bowers Hill and the Hampton Roads Beltway.

Highway 17 into North Carolina and joins to Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Five barns s presently pass through portions of Chesapeake, and handle some intermodal traffic at port facilities on Hampton Roads and navigable portions of a several of its tributary rivers.

Chesapeake is positioned on a potential line for high speed traveler rail service between Richmond and South Hampton Roads which is being studied by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation.

Interstate 64, part of the Hampton Roads Beltway, crosses through the city, Interstate 464 is a spur which joins it with downtown Norfolk and Portsmouth at the Berkley Bridge, and Interstate 664, which completes the Interstate loop from the Western Branch section of Chesapeake through the town/city of Newport News and into the town/city of Hampton.

It contains the Chesapeake Expressway toll road.

Chesapeake is the only locality in the Hampton Roads region with a separate bridge division.

The city's Department of Public Works, Bridges and Structures division has 51 full-time workers.

The town/city maintains 90 bridges and overpasses.

North Carolina and Virginia have been looking to connect Raleigh, North Carolina and the Hampton Roads area.

Major highway bridges in Chesapeake include Veterans Bridge, the Gilmerton Bridge, the Jordan Bridge, and the High Rise Bridge, all drawbridges crossing the Southern Branch Elizabeth River.

Replacing the Gilmerton Bridge has been a goal for Chesapeake for many years.

In October, 2007, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot announced that the town/city had accumulated $142 million in state and federal financing, enough to start building the replacement bridge some time in 2009. Hampton Roads Transit buses serve the town/city of Chesapeake as well as other metros/cities in the Hampton Roads Area.

Chesapeake receives its electricity from Dominion Virginia Power which has small-town sources including the Chesapeake Energy Center (a coal-fired and gas power plant), coal-fired plants in the town/city and Southampton County, and the Surry Nuclear Power Plant.

Norfolk headquartered Virginia Natural Gas, a subsidiary of AGL Resources, distributes natural gas to the town/city from storage plants in James City County and in the city.

Chesapeake receives the majority of its water from the Northwest River in the southeastern part of the city.

To deal with intermittent high salt content, Chesapeake implemented an advanced reverse osmosis fitness at its Northwest River water treatment plant in the late 1990s.

Currently, extra contaminating for the South Hampton Roads region is pumped from Lake Gaston, about 80 miles (130 km) west, which straddles the Virginia-North Carolina border along with the Blackwater and Nottaway rivers.

The metros/cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach are partners in the project. The town/city provides wastewater services for inhabitants and transports wastewater to the county-wide Hampton Roads Sanitation District treatment plants. Chesapeake, Virginia won the wildcard round, earning it a brown spot. National Register of Historic Places listings in Chesapeake, Virginia Virginia State 2013 Population Estimates Retrieved February 2, 2013 "Chesapeake rates on best metros/cities list".

"Book on Chesapeake's history digs into city's boroughs".

"Chesapeake, Virginia Koppen Climate Classification (Weatherbase)".

City of Chesapeake CAFR "Hampton Roads News Links".

City of Virginia Beach.

"Virginia Beach, Chesapeake win spots on new Monopoly game board".

Chesapeake, Virginia City of Chesapeake Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance - serving Chesapeake City of Portsmouth and City of Norfolk City of Suffolk City of Virginia Beach Chesapeake, Virginia Municipalities and communities of Chesapeake, Virginia, United States Butts Road Deep Creek Great Bridge South Norfolk Western Branch