Chesapeake Bay / Fort Monroe NHS
Driving Across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge | Norfolk, VA | Visiting Fort Monroe National Historic Site | May 2025
We started off our morning by driving the 17 mile long bridge across the Chesapeake Bay, South into Norfolk. Naturally, we had to joke that we were turning the van into a submarine when we went through the underwater tunnels. When we made it to the city, our first stop was at Mount Trashmore park. Here we went for a long walk, and got to see Virginia’s Whispering Giant statue. This one is 50 years old, and still in great condition! It had rained a lot recently so we were dodging large puddles the whole way, but it was a nice walk before the heat of the day really set in. It definitely felt like we were back in the South.
Our next order of business was to drive up to Hampton so we could visit Fort Monroe National Historic Site. We got to cross the bay again on another long bridge, and saw several carriers at the naval base in the distance, but the whole time we were saying over and over how thankful we were to never have been stationed here. And on that note, we decided to be as efficient as possible in grabbing counties/city counties.
When we made it to Fort Monroe, Curtis went to stamp in at the visitor center while I walked Charlotte around the river front. After we figured out where we could go and what we could do, we entered the fort and found a place to have a picnic before exploring any more. It was uncomfortably hot and humid by this point, but thankfully we found a nice shady spot where we could eat and nap in the grass (Charlotte) while Curtis and I took turns seeing what we could of the fort.
Fort Monroe was built following the War of 1812 after the capitol was burned by the British. The federal government realized they needed a system of forts to defend the Atlantic Ports, and the Chesapeake chief among them. This was the third system of Forts – and by this point in our travels we’ve seen a lot of them: Fort Adams, RI; Fort Trumbull, CT; Fort Macon, NC; Fort Caswell, NC; Fort Sumter, SC; and Fort Pulaski, GA. But all of these forts are puny in comparison to the size of Fort Monroe. One infographic showed 4-5 of the forts we’ve been too fitting inside Fort Monroe, with room to spare!
During the Civil War, the Fort remained in Union hands though it was witness to the Merrimac and Monitor ironclad battle in the Hampton Roads. It was the headquarters of General McClellan during the Peninsular Campaign and Lincoln also visited. During the 20th century, the fort was upgraded and expanded – adding Endicott batteries. But eventually really became known as a Coastal Artillery school and then as several other Army Command schools. During all those years, the Army expanded well beyond the walls of the actual Fort and soon occupied the entire island it was built on.
The base was closed in 2011, but the land was transferred to a joint ownership of the NPS, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the City of Hampton who manage the historic aspect, while still allowing some modern development and use.
We toured the Casemate museum which chronicles the long history of the fort, and walked along the parapets and walls to get a good idea of the hugeness of the original fort.
When we were finished here, it was time to start making our way South. We wished we had enough time to visit the other historic sites along Colonial Parkway, but there is so much to do there that we want to go back someday to do it right (while somehow avoiding Norfolk). We made a loop back across the Hampton Roads, taking a different bridge South and going through the city of Chesapeake on our way out, going out of our way to claim another city county. Virginia is a complicated state for county counting, but each time we drive through we make a little more progress, and that’s what matters!
We entered North Carolina, and were able to get a few new counties here as well. All of our remaining counties here are in the Northeast, which is (in our opinion) the least interesting part of the state, but we were happy to have a chance to claim a few today. Since last night’s stay at a rest stop had went well, we decided to try another one off of US-158, just a half hour away from the Outer Banks. We were worried that the heat and humidity would make hanging out here miserable, but were pleasantly surprised when we exited the van and found it had cooled off considerably. This was all thanks to some big storms that were going through, but somehow going just South and North of us, so we didn’t even get rained on. We sat outside at a picnic table for a while, just reading and enjoying the afternoon, and later enjoying our dinner outside before retiring to the van for the night. The road was rather busy and there was a fair going on just North of the rest stop, with bright lights shining into the night, but we were thankful for a free place to sleep before our day exploring the Outer Banks.
