About "Hampton Roads", Virginia

The Police Unity Tour of Virginia is based out of an area of Virginia known as "Hampton Roads". The area is also commonly referred to as "Tidewater". The founding members of this chapter would like for you to know more about our home.

Hampton Roads refers to a group of cities in the southeastern portion of Virginia. With a population of over 1 1/2 million people, it is the 4th largest Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the Southeastern United States, topping both Nashville and Charlotte in size. Hampton Roads is now the country's 27th largest metro area with over 1.5 million people.

Unlike many of the metropolitan areas across the country, Hampton Roads' population nucleus is not confined to one central city, but is spread among several growing cities of significant size. Therefore, Greater Hampton Roads has come to refer not only to the harbor and its contiguous communities, but to the entire metropolitan area of southeastern Virginia.

The term "Hampton Roads" is a centuries-old reference that originated when the region was a struggling British outpost nearly 400 years ago. Signifying the safety of a port, "roads" is nautical terminology meaning "a place less sheltered than a harbor where ships may ride at anchor".

Designated in the late 17th Century as the name of the world's largest natural harbor where the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth Rivers pour into the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the name "Hampton Roads" honors one of the founders of the Virginia Company and a great supporter of the colonization of Virginia, Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton.

VIEW THE LIST OF POLICE OFFICERS THAT HAVE BEEN KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY SERVING THEIR COMMUNITIES IN HAMPTON ROADS.