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Newport News is an independent city in Virginia. It is on the southwestern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending to its mouth at Hampton Roads.

The unusual name of "Newport News" is unclear. Some locals believe it gained its name as the geographic point at which "news" reached shore of Captain Christopher Newport's long delayed arrival after his ill-fated Third Supply mission in May 1610. Perhaps originally the name signaled hope that Jamestown would survive and the "Starving Time" was over. In reality, Captain Newport's arrival proved remarkable in two ways: 1) with him was colonist John Rolfe, with a new form of tobacco to try to export for the as-yet unprofitable Virginia Colony, and 2) proved to be a stop-gap for the colonists, postponing the abandonment of Jamestown long enough so that the eventual attempt to abandon Jamestown encountered the supply mission of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, which brought a new form of leadership as well. West and Rolfe together held the keys to the Virginia Colony's survival.

It is more probable that the original name was "New Port Newce", named for a person with the name Newce and the town's place as a new seaport. The first English settlement on the site of Newport News which was made in 1621 in Elizabeth Cittie (sic) by planters brought from Ireland by Daniel Gookin, who selected the site on the advice of Sir William Newce and his brother Captain Thomas Newce. On the edge of Elizabeth City County, it was earliest an unincorporated town without formal boundaries in Warwick County for over 250 years. Some early maps show it as Newport News Point.

Beginning in 1881, 15 years of explosive development began under Collis P. Huntington, who built a new railroad, coal piers, and a large shipyard. In 1896, Newport News, which had been the county seat of Warwick County, became a separate city from the county.

In 1900, 19,635 people lived in Newport News, Virginia; in 1910, 20,205; in 1920, 35,596; and in 1940, 37,067. However, the city consolidated with the former Warwick County by mutual consent in 1958, becoming Virginia's third largest in city population. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 180,150. A more recent 2005 estimate indicates the city's population has declined to 179,899 [1]. It is Virginia's fifth largest city.

Among the city's major industries are Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, owned by Northrop Grumman[2], and the large coal piers supplied by railroad giant CSX Transportation. Miles of the waterfront can be seen by automobiles crossing the James River Bridge and Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel. Recovered artifacts from the USS Monitor are displayed at the Mariners' Museum, and American Civil War battle sites near historic Lee Hall and several plantations have been protected along the roads leading to Yorktown and Williamsburg of the Historic Triangle.

Newport News is served by two airports. Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, located in Newport News, and Norfolk International Airport, in Norfolk, both cater to passengers from Hampton Roads. The primary airport for the Virginia Peninsula is the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport. The Airport is experiencing a 4th year of record, double-digit growth, making it one of the fastest growing airports in the country. In January 2006, the airport reported having served 1,058,839 passengers. Along with this record growth, there has been increased talk of a possible Newport News-UK direct flight after UK-based Wolseley plc decided to put its North American headquarters in Newport News. Speculation further increased when the news was considered against the backdrop of the Jamestown 2007 commemorations.

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