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- This article is about the city of Richmond, the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia. For information on Richmond County, which is 53 miles (85 km) away and unrelated to the city, please see Richmond County, Virginia.
| City of Richmond, Virginia |
|
|
Flag |
Seal |
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| Nickname(s): River City, Cap City, Capital of the South |
| Motto: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Thus do we reach the stars) |
|
Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia |
Coordinates:  37°31′58.8″N 77°28′1.2″W / 37.533, -77.467 |
| Country |
United States |
| State |
Virginia |
| Government |
| - Mayor |
L. Douglas Wilder (I) |
| Area |
| - City |
62.5 sq mi (162.0 km²) |
| - Land |
60.1 sq mi (155.6 km²) |
| - Water |
2.5 sq mi (6.4 km²) |
| Elevation |
166.45 ft (45.7 m) |
| Population (2007) |
| - City |
200,123 (estimate) |
| - Density |
3,211.1/sq mi (1,239.8/km²) |
| - Urban |
1,045,250 |
| - Metro |
1,194,008 |
| Time zone |
EST (UTC-5) |
| - Summer (DST) |
EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP Codes |
23173, 23218-23242,
23249-23250, 23255, 23260-23261, 23269, 23273-23274, 23276,
23278-23279, 23282, 23284-23286, 23288-23295, 23297-23298 |
| Area code(s) |
804 |
| FIPS code |
51-67000[1] |
| GNIS feature ID |
1499957[2] |
| Website: http://www.ci.richmond.va.us |
Richmond (IPA: /ˈrɪtʃmənd/) is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. Like all Virginia municipalities incorporated as cities, it is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and the Greater Richmond area. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, the city is located at the intersections of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64
in central Virginia. As of 2007, the city's estimated population is
200,123, with a metropolitan area population of 1.1 million, making the
Richmond Metropolitan Area the third largest metropolitan area in
Virginia.
The site of Richmond, at the fall line of the James River in the Piedmont region of Virginia, was briefly settled by English settlers from Jamestown
in 1607, near the site of a significant native settlement. The present
city of Richmond was founded in 1737. It became the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in 1780. During the Revolutionary War period, several notable events occurred in the city, including Patrick Henry's, "Give me liberty or give me death," speech in 1775 at St. John's Church, and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1779; the latter of which was written by Thomas Jefferson in the city. During the American Civil War, Richmond served as the capital of the Confederate States of America, and many important American Civil War landmarks remain in the city today, including the Virginia State Capitol and the White House of the Confederacy, among others.
Richmond's economy is primarily driven by law, finance, and government
with several notable legal and banking firms, as well as federal,
state, and local governmental agencies, located in the downtown area.
Richmond is one of twelve cities in the United States to be home to a Federal Reserve Bank. There are also nine Fortune 500, and thirteen Fortune 1000 companies in the city.
History
-
The Christopher Newport Cross monument on the canal, commemorating the
cross erected at the current site of Richmond by an English exploration
party that claimed the site and the river for King James in 1607. The
party was led by Capt. Christopher Newport and Capt. John Smith.
In 1606, James I granted a royal charter to the Virginia Company of London to settle colonists in North America.[3] After the first permanent English settlement was established in April, 1607, at Jamestown, Captain Christopher Newport and Captain John Smith led explorers northwest up the James River, and on June 3, 1607,
erected a cross on one of the small islands in the middle of the part
of the river that runs through today's downtown area. The first
permanent settlement within the present limits of the city was made in
1609 in the district known as Rockett's.[4] Before 1607, Indian tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy
had lived in the region. For centuries, the tribe recognized the value
of this site, rich in natural beauty. They knew it as a place to hunt,
fish, play, and trade, and they called it "Shocquohocan,", or Shockoe.[4][5]
Later the same year, Captain Smith bought a tract of land on the
east bank of the river from the Indians, about 3 miles (4.8 km) from
the initial settlement. He named this tract, "Nonesuch," and attempted
to establish a small garrison, which was later abandoned due to ongoing
attacks by the Indians. In 1645, Fort Charles was erected at the falls
of the James – the highest navigable point of the James River – as a
frontier defense. New settlers moved in, and the community grew into a
bustling trading post for furs, hides, and tobacco.[4][5]
In 1673, William Byrd I
was granted lands on the James River that included the area around
Falls that would become Richmond and already included small
settlements. Byrd was a well-connected Indian trader in the area and
established a fort on the site. William Byrd II inherited his father's land in 1704, and in 1737 founded the town of Richmond at the Falls of the James and commissioned Major William Mayo to lay out the original town grid. Byrd named the city Richmond after the town of Richmond in England (a suburb of London) because the view of the James River was strikingly similar to the view of the River Thames
from Richmond, England, where he had spent time during his youth. The
settlement was laid out in April, 1737, and was incorporated as a town
in 1742.[4][5]
American Revolutionary War
Patrick Henry delivering his, "Liberty or Death," speech at
St. John's Church in Richmond, helping to ignite the American Revolution.
In 1775, Patrick Henry delivered his famous, "Give me Liberty or Give me Death," speech in St. John's Church in Richmond that was crucial for deciding Virginia's (then the largest of the 13 colonies) participation in the First Continental Congress and setting the course for revolution and independence. Thomas Jefferson, who would soon write the United States Declaration of Independence, George Washington, who would soon command the Continental Army,were in attendance at this critical moment on the path to the American Revolution.[6]
On April 18, 1780, as Virginia’s population moved further west, the state capital was moved from the colonial capital of Williamsburg to Richmond, to provide a more centralized location, as well as to isolate the capital from British attack.[7] In 1781, under the command of Benedict Arnold,
Richmond was burned by British troops causing Governor Thomas Jefferson
to flee the city. Yet Richmond shortly recovered and, by 1782, Richmond
was once again a thriving city.[8]
In 1786, one of the most important and influential passages of
legislation in American history was passed at the temporary state
capital in Richmond, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Written by Thomas Jefferson and sponsored by James Madison, the statute was the basis for the separation of church and state, and led to freedom of religion for all Americans as protected in the religion clause in the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. Its importance is recognized annually by the President of The United States, with January 16 established as National Religious Freedom Day.[9]
The Virginia State Capitol building, designed by Thomas Jefferson and Charles-Louis Clérisseau,
was completed in 1788. It is the second-oldest US statehouse in
continuous use (Maryland's is the oldest) and was the first US
government building built in the neo-classical Roman style of architecture, setting the trend for other state houses and the federal government buildings (including the White House and The Capitol) in Washington, DC. The state capitol is one of thirteen in the United States without a dome and underwent a complete renovation which was completed in May 2007.[10]
Early nineteenth century
After the Revolutionary War, Richmond emerged an important
industrial center; it also became a crossroads of transportation and
commerce, much of this tied to its role as a major hub in the Transatlantic slave trade. George Washington proposed and received the support of the Virginia legislature for the establishment of the James River and Kanawha Canal, the first canal
system to be established in the U.S. The canal allowed goods and
services coming up the James River to be navigated around the falls at
Richmond and connect Richmond and the eastern part of Virginia with the
west. As a result, Richmond became home to some of the largest
manufacturing facilities in the country, including iron works and flour
mills, the largest facilities of their kind in the south. Canal traffic
peaked in the 1860s and slowly gave way to railroads, allowing Richmond
to become a major railroad crossroads, eventually including the site of
the world's first triple railroad crossing.[11]
The Canal officially ceased operations in the 1880s, although portions
of the canal have been preserved and rebuilt by 1998–1999, spurring
tourism and economic development along the old canal route in downtown
Richmond.[12]
Besides transportation and industry, antebellum Richmond was also the center of regional communications, with several newspapers and book publishers, including John Warrock, helping shape public opinion and further the education of the populace.
The resistance to the slave trade was growing by the mid-nineteenth century; in one famous case in 1848, Henry “Box” Brown made history by having himself nailed into a small box and shipped from Richmond to abolitionists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, escaping slavery.[13]
Civil War and Reconstruction
Shells of the buildings of Richmond, silhouetted against a dark sky
after the destruction by Confederates fleeing advancing Union forces,
1865.
-
At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the strategic location of the Tredegar Iron Works was one of the primary factors in the decision to make Richmond the Capital of the Confederacy.[14] From this arsenal came the 723 tons of armor plating that covered the CSS Virginia, the world’s first ironclad used in war, as well as much of the Confederates' heavy ordnance machinery.[15] In February, 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama, the first Confederate capital. In the early morning of April 12, 1861, the Confederate army fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Civil War had begun. On April 17, 1861,
Virginia seceded from the United States and joined the Confederate
States, and soon thereafter the Confederate government moved its
capital to Richmond.[16] The Confederate Congress shared quarters with the Virginia General Assembly in the Virginia State Capitol, and the Confederacy's executive mansion, the "White House of the Confederacy", was two blocks away in the upscale Court End neighborhood.
The Seven Days Battles,
in which Union General McClellan threatened Richmond and came very near
but ultimately failed to take the city, followed in late June and early
July of 1862. Three years later on April 3, 1865, Uly
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