Page "Cape Charles, Virginia" Paragraph 7

Cape Charles, located close to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, on Virginia's Eastern Shore, was founded in 1884 as a planned community by railroad and ferry interests.

Historian William G. Thomas writes, " At a cost of nearly $ 300, 000, the N. Y., P. & N. was dredging a new harbor out of a large fresh-water lagoon between King ’ s and Old Plantation creeks in lower Northampton County, and Scott planned to develop a new town around it called Cape Charles City.

The appellation “ City ” for any place on the Eastern Shore was romantic, a vision of the future that the railroad might make possible .... In 1890 the Corps of Engineers dredged the harbor basin, its entrance, and a channel through Cherrystone Inlet and built stone jetties protecting the harbor outlet.

By 1912 the Corps estimated that Cape Charles harbor handled 2, 500, 000 tons of freight a year.

" ( See: The Countryside Transformed )