It measures 17.6 miles from shore to shore, with more than 12 miles of trestle roadway, 2 mile-long tunnels, 4 man-made islands, 2 miles of causeway and 5.5 miles of approach roads, totaling 23 miles. There are 100 miles of piles (concrete supporting columns). If placed end to end, the piles alone could reach from New York to Philadelphia. Monstrous equipment was specially designed and created for the job of driving piles, leveling and capping the piles and setting the roadway slabs. The total cost of this mammoth project, including a second span completed in 1999 was $450 million, but not a dime of local, state, or federal tax money was used.
This is entering one of the tunnels. Notice the large ship comming in and crossing over from the left to the center.
Shortly after we crossed over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel we arrived at Williamsburg. We traveled for 3.5 hours and 151 miles. We are staying at American Heritage RV Park.
AMERICAN HERITAGE RV PARK
This is a nice RV Park with about 100 sites. We are in the woods, so there are lots pine trees and plenty of shade. There is a bluegrass festival happening at this RV park for the weekend so there will be lots of people at their individual sites with their basses, guitars and other instruments playing and singing bluegrass. They assigned us a site way in the back so we would not be near where all the participants will be hanging out. However, I would not have minded being closer to the music. It would have been fun.
Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under Virginia to see a review and more pictures of this RV Park. http://charleston-rv-park-review.blogspot.com/
DAY 45-47, APRIL 15-17: WILLIAMSBURG
Williamsburg began as Middle Plantation, an outpost of Jamestown in 1633. When the capital of the colony was removed from Jamestown in 1699, a new planned city was laid out at Middle Plantation named Williamsburg in honor of King William III. For the next 81 years, it was the seat of government and the social and cultural center of Virginia. In 1780, Gov Thomas Jefferson relocated the capital to Richmond.
For the next three days we saw the sights in the Williamsburg area. We visited the Yankee Candle Outlet Store. This is a large store with lots of fun areas full of gifts and of course Yankee Candles. One area was done up like a village at Christmas and it was snowing. There was a Santa’s workshop with a white bearded guy sitting there behind a table. He really looked like Santa! This would be a fun place for kids.
We also visited the Williamsburg Pottery Factory. This was actually a discount shopping place. It was 200 acres of connecting buildings full of stuff; pottery, china, baskets, glass ware, silk flowers, frames, craft supplies, etc. Mostly it was junk. But there were some great bargains. 
We bought some pottery pitchers that were actually bird houses. We saw them around Colonial Williamsburg with birds nesting in them. We wanted some for our yard.
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG
When Richmond became the capital, Williamsburg reverted to the status of a quiet college town. Fearing that many of the historic buildings would be lost, a local minister persuaded John D. Rockefeller Jr. to finance the restoration of the colonial town. In 1926 the two men embarked on this ambitious project to preserve some 70 structures.
Today Colonial Williamsburg is a 301 acre outdoor living-history museum that recreates the spirit and culture of everyday life in 18th century capital of Virginia. Everyone is in period costumes and the public is invited to wear period costumes as well while visiting the historic site.
For several hours we casually wondered streets visiting some of the historic buildings and checking out the shops. We had a real nice lunch at Kings Arms Tavern and were waited on by servers in period costumes.
HAMPTON, VA
I wanted to check out this bead store that was in nearby Hampton. So we spent a day doing errands. We stopped at Trader Joes (yes there is a TJ on the East Coast, but there are very few of them and far between) to stock up on our favorite groceries. We also stopped at Costco and Sam’s Club. But we had trouble finding that bead shop. The GPS lead us to a historical area in downtown Hampton and while we were searching for this store we found several very nice murals painted on the sides of these brick buildings.
We finally asked someone and we were directed a few miles away to a Town Center shopping area that is new and covers a few blocks. This place is very festive with several restaurants and lots of unique shops. Wish we had more time to spend there. We will remember this for another trip. But we did find Bead Haven and I bought some unique beads.
This was something we have never seen before. The street parking in the Town Center had meters encouraging you to park here because the proceeds will go to a charity!Now we will do a short visit to West Virginia to visit another historical site; Harpers Ferry.
WEST VIRGINIA facts: Entered the Union in 1863 as the 35th state. Covers 24,232 square miles and has a population of 1,808,344.
State Motto: “Montani semper liberi (Mountaineers are always free)”
State Nickname: Mountain State
State Capital: Charleston
State Flower: Rhododendron
State Bird: Cardinal
State Animal Black Bear
State Tree: Sugar Maple
State Gem: Fossil Coral
State Song: “West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home”(1947), “The West Virginia Hills” (1961), and “This is my West Virginia” (1963)
DAY 48-49, APRIL 18-19: HARPERS FERRY, WEST VIRGINIA
The town of Harpers Ferry is a National Park. Harper’s Ferry history includes the arrival of the first successful American railroad, John Brown’s attack on slavery, the largest surrender of Federal troops during the Civil War, and the education of former slaves in one of the earliest integrated schools in the US. Also Lewis of Lewis and Clark came here to get supplies and guns before he left on his exploration trip with Clark.
We will be spending two nights at this National Park. The road we took to get to Harpers Ferry took us from Virginia, then briefly into Maryland, then into West Virginia. After 5 hours and 212 miles we arrived at Harpers Ferry KOA.
HARPERS FERRY KOA
The KOA campground that we stayed in is also in the park and very near the Park’s visitor center. It’s a fairly nice RV park, but very expensive. It’s really the only campground in the area so they can charge you whatever they want.
Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under West Virginia to see a review and more pictures of this RV Park. http://charleston-rv-park-review.blogspot.com/
The United States Armory and Arsenal was established in Harpers Ferry in the 1790’s. It transformed Harpers Ferry from a wilderness into an industrial center. From 1799 and the start of the Civil War in 1861, this armory produced over 600,000 muskets, rifles and pistols and employed over 400 workers. The first military rifle (Model 1803 flintlock) was produced here. John Brown believed he could free the slaves and he selected Harpers Ferry as his starting point. He was determined to seize the 100,000 weapons at the arsenal and to use the mountains for guerrilla warfare. He began his raid on the evening of October 16, 1859. His 21 man ‘army’ included three of his sons and five free slaves. Thirty six hours later, most of his men were killed or wounded. John Brown was captured, brought to trial at nearby Charles Town and found guilty of treason and murder. He was hanged on December 2, 1859. His execution focused the nation’s attention on the moral issue of slavery and headed the country toward civil war.
In 1861 the Federal soldiers set fire to the armory and arsenal to keep them out of Southern hands. The Civil War wrecked the economy and forced many residents to leave for good.
Today the historical town of Harpers Ferry consists of two small blocks of historical buildings, shops and restaurants that come to a point where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet. There are also some battlegrounds nearby, but we did not visit any of them. We did spend time in town checking out the shops, visiting some of the historical buildings and having a nice lunch at a Tavern.
We thought this was very interesting. This is the back of someone's home on one of the streets we were stolling on. This rock arch is being held together by gravity. Pretty cool!
CHARLES TOWN
We also visited Charles Town less than ten miles away. Charles Town was founded in 1786 by Charles Washington (George’s brother). We saw the court house where John Brown was tried and convicted and visited some antique stores in the historic part of town. Other than that, there was not much else to see in this town. We couldn’t even find a decent place to eat lunch. We finally found a funky lunch counter inside of an antique store called ‘Needful Things’. Did anyone ever see that Steven King movie or read the book.....
Our next destination is back into Virginia to explore Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park.
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