Cape Henry

Cape Henry is a prominent cape situated at the northeastern corner of Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the southern entrance to Chesapeake Bay. It lies on the Atlantic shore and forms the southern boundary of the entrance to the long estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. Together with Cape Charles to the north, Cape Henry forms the Virginia Capes, both named for sons of King James I of England in 1607. Few geographic points in the United States carry as dense a concentration of historical significance: the cape was the very first landfall of English settlers bound for Jamestown, the site of two pivotal Revolutionary War naval battles, and home to the first lighthouse ever authorized and completed by the federal government. Today, Cape Henry falls within the boundaries of Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story and is adjacent to First Landing State Park, drawing visitors, historians, and military personnel alike.

Geography and Setting

Cape Henry is a promontory at the southern entrance to Chesapeake Bay, on the Atlantic coast in the northeast corner of the city of Virginia Beach, in southeastern Virginia. Located at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, it offers a unique combination of features including dunes, beaches, sand, surf, deep-water anchorage, variable tide conditions, maritime forest, and open land.

The cape's distinctive landscape is the product of thousands of years of geological change. Research by Old Dominion University found that the sand dunes at Cape Henry began appearing about 5,000 years ago, carved by erosion and sea level rise from melting glaciers after the last ice age ended around 11,000 years ago. Larger, 100-foot dunes formed much later around Fort Story and became prominent to early navigators in the Colonial era. As ships approached Cape Henry, the tall dunes served as a landmark indicating the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

Cape Henry is also the northernmost east coast location where subtropical and temperate plants can be found growing together — a botanical distinction recognized by federal authorities. In 1965, the park's natural area was included in the National Register of Natural Landmarks because of this distinction as the northernmost location on the East Coast where subtropical and temperate plants grow and thrive together.

The First Landing of 1607

Cape Henry holds an unrivaled place in American colonial history as the site of the first landfall made by the English settlers who would go on to found Jamestown. The cape was named on April 26, 1607, in honor of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the heir-apparent to the throne of England, by an expedition of the London Company branch of the Virginia Company headed by Captain Christopher Newport. After an unusually long voyage of 144 days from England, Cape Henry was their first landfall — an event that has come to be called "The First Landing."

The group consisted of 105 men and boys who set sail from England aboard three ships: the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. Funded and sent by the Virginia Company, they had instructions to build a secure settlement, find gold, and seek a water route to the Pacific Ocean.

Captain Christopher Newport, in command of the fleet, came ashore with about 20–30 men to scout the area. The arrival was not entirely peaceful. That evening, Native peoples defending their land fired arrows at the colonists, who fired their pistols in return. Three days after landing, the colonists named the cape in honor of King James I's eldest son, Prince Henry, and placed a wooden cross to mark the site. They then began sailing north, seeking a sheltered location to build a fort, and established their permanent settlement at Jamestown two weeks later in May 1607.

Upon touching the shore of the New World on April 26, 1607 — 13 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock — the first permanent English settlers from the London Company set up a cross on the newly named Cape Henry shore in gratitude to God and to affirm England's claim to the site. A stone cross, erected in 1935 by the Daughters of the American Colonists, stands on the quarter-acre memorial site today. The memorial is part of Colonial National Historical Park and is surrounded by Fort Story Military Reservation and Seashore State Park.

The Cape Henry Lighthouse

The Cape Henry Lighthouse, commanding the entrance to Hampton Roads in the city of Virginia Beach, was the first lighthouse authorized, fully completed, and lighted by the newly organized federal government. The bid for its construction was approved by President George Washington.

The story of the lighthouse's construction is closely tied to the birth of the American republic itself. During the first session of the First United States Congress in 1789, Jacob Wray, the collector of customs at Hampton, made a plea to the newly appointed Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, that the unlit shores of Cape Henry — which had claimed 57 maritime vessels — needed to be promptly addressed. Hamilton contracted the project with John McComb, Jr., the designer of the planned presidential residence. Using Aquia stone that remained on-site from a failed wartime attempt to build a lighthouse, as well as Rappahannock freestone, McComb's plans called for an octagonal structure with three windows in the east and four in the west, standing 90 feet above the water table and costing $17,700 — roughly $435,000 in today's money.

Put into operation in October 1792, the tapered octagonal Cape Henry Lighthouse, faced with hammer-dressed sandstone ashlar, was the first of three lighthouses designed and built by John McComb, Jr. of New York. The completion of the Cape Henry Lighthouse marked the first federal work project of the new United States government to be fulfilled, and it quickly became an important fixture for the region's maritime enterprises and military.

Though a new lighthouse, which is still in use, was built adjacent to it in 1881, the old Cape Henry Lighthouse still stands as a reminder of Virginia Beach's historic past. The distinctive black and white striped "New" Cape Henry Lighthouse was built in 1881 but remains closed to the public. Preservation Virginia members placed a tablet on the tower in 1896 to mark the site of the "First Landing," and in 1930 an act of Congress deeded the lighthouse and surrounding land to their care. Today, the Cape Henry Lighthouse is surrounded by Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story.

Visitors to the old lighthouse climb 191 steps to reach the top, where the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean can both be seen. The lighthouse is recognized as the first federally funded public works project of the newly formed United States government; it was authorized by George Washington and overseen by Alexander Hamilton.

The Battle of the Capes

Cape Henry and the waters immediately offshore were the stage for two significant naval engagements during the American Revolutionary War, both of which would have lasting consequences for the outcome of the conflict.

The first engagement, the Battle of Cape Henry, took place on March 16, 1781. The battle occurred just outside the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay off Cape Henry, between a French fleet of eight ships-of-the-line and one frigate under Admiral Charles Destouches and British forces under Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot. Though the French inflicted far greater damage, Destouches did not press his advantage. Rather than pursue the injured British fleet and renew the attack, Destouches allowed the British to sail into the Chesapeake Bay while he returned to his base at Newport, Rhode Island, to repair his ships.

The far more decisive engagement was the Battle of the Chesapeake, fought on September 5, 1781 — also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes or the Battle of the Capes. Fought at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, French Admiral François Joseph Paul, Comte de Grasse, commanded a fleet of thirty-seven ships that clashed with nineteen British ships under Admiral Thomas Graves. Though the engagement lasted only a few hours and ended in stalemate, the French gained control of the bay, cutting off British General Charles Cornwallis from supplies and reinforcements. Deciding not to attack the French further, British Admiral Graves withdrew north back to New York. This decision left de Grasse in control of the Chesapeake and effectively closed off any future aid to Cornwallis via the sea.

On September 13, 1781, Graves made the fateful decision to return to New York for repairs. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis was forced to surrender his army to Washington. Thus the English rule which had begun at Jamestown in 1607 was effectively ended at Yorktown in 1781.

At the Battle of the Virginia Capes Monument within Fort Story, there is a statue of French Admiral François Joseph Paul, Comte de Grasse, commemorating the famous sea battle that prevented the British from reaching Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War.

First Landing State Park

Directly adjacent to Fort Story, First Landing State Park preserves the natural landscape of Cape Henry and commemorates the colonial history of the site. The name "First Landing" commemorates the 1607 landing of the Virginia Company on Cape Henry. The group of settlers that made landfall here eventually moved west and formed Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.

Development of the park began in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps on 1,060 acres of donated land. Most of the workers were Black American men. The new park opened on June 15, 1936. The park's name was changed in 1997 from Seashore State Park to First Landing State Park to reflect its heritage as the first place where members of the Virginia Company landed.

First Landing offers boating, swimming, nature and history programs, hiking, biking, picnicking, a boat launch, cabins, and 19 miles of trails on 2,888 acres. The park holds the distinction of being the northernmost east coast location where subtropical and temperate plants can be found growing together. First Landing State Park is a 2,888-acre Natural Landmark and features 19 miles of trails and diverse ecosystems, making it Virginia's most visited state park.

Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story and Modern Military Presence

Much of Cape Henry today lies within the boundaries of Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story (JEB Fort Story), an active United States military installation. Located in the independent city of Virginia Beach at Cape Henry at the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay, it offers a unique combination of features including dunes, beaches, sand, surf, deep-water anchorage, variable tide conditions, maritime forest, and open land. The base is the prime location and training environment for both U.S. Army amphibious operations and Joint Logistics-Over-the-Shore (LOTS) training events.

Fort Story became a military installation in 1914 when the Virginia General Assembly gave the land to the U.S. Government "to erect fortifications and for other military purposes." Fort Story was named after General John Patten Story in 1914, one of the most noted coast artilleryman of that time. As a result of a 2005 Base Realignment and Closure recommendation, Fort Story operations were transferred to the United States Navy. On October 1, 2009, Fort Story and Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek merged, and Fort Story officially became Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story.

Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story has three historic sites: the Cape Henry Memorial Cross, which marks the location where the Jamestown settlers first landed in 1607; the Old Cape Henry Light, the first lighthouse authorized and built by the federal government; and the Battle of the Virginia Capes Monument. Civilian visitors may access the historic sites, including the old lighthouse, by passing through a security checkpoint on the base, and are required to present valid government-issued identification.