James River (Virginia) in the context of "Northrop Grumman Newport News"

The Greater Richmond Region, also known as the Richmond metropolitan area or Central Virginia, is a region and metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Virginia, centered on Richmond. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines the area as the Richmond, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) used by the U.S. Census Bureau and other entities. The OMB defines the area as comprising 17 county-level jurisdictions, including the independent cities of Richmond, Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights. As of 2020, it had a population of 1,314,434, making it the 44th largest MSA in the country.

The Greater Richmond Region is located in the central part of Virginia. It straddles the Fall Line, where the coastal plain and the Piedmont come together on the James River at Richmond and the Appomattox River at Petersburg. The English established each as a colonial port in the 17th century. The Greater Richmond Metro region is considered to be the southern extension of the Northeast megalopolis.

The Shenandoah Valley (/ˌʃɛnənˈdoʊə/) is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia in the United States. The Valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians (excluding Massanutten Mountain), to the north by the Potomac River, to the south by the James River, and to the Southwest by the New River Valley. The cultural region covers a larger area that includes all of the Valley plus the Virginia Highlands to the west and the Roanoke Valley to the south. It is physiographically located within the Ridge and Valley Province and is a portion of the Great Appalachian Valley.

The Nansemond River is a 19.8-mile-long (31.9 km) tributary of the James River in Virginia in the United States. Virginian colonists named the river for the Nansemond tribe of Native Americans, who had long inhabited the area. They continue as a federally recognized tribe in Virginia.

The river begins at the outlet of Lake Meade north of downtown Suffolk, which had historically marked the northern boundary of the city. The Nansemond River Light once signaled the river's confluence with the James.

Rockfish Gap is a wind gap located in the Blue Ridge Mountains between Charlottesville and Waynesboro, Virginia, United States, through Afton Mountain, which is frequently used to refer to the gap.

Joining the Shenandoah Valley to the Piedmont region of the state, it is the site of the mountain crossing of Interstate 64, U.S. Route 250, and the former Blue Ridge Railroad which later became part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and is currently part of the CSX line. With an elevation of about 1,900 feet (580 m), it is one of the lowest gaps between Manassas Gap and the James River. Rockfish Gap lies along a drainage divide between southeast-flowing streams that drain to the James River and northwest-flowing streams in the Shenandoah River system.

Charles City County is a county located in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated southeast of Richmond and west of Jamestown. It is bounded on the south by the James River and on the east by the Chickahominy River.

The area that would become Charles City County was first established as "Charles Cittie" by the Virginia Company in 1619. It was one of the first four "boroughs" of Virginia, and was named in honor of Prince Charles, who would later become King Charles I of England. After Virginia became a royal colony, the borough was changed to "Charles City Shire" in 1634, as one of the five original Shires of Virginia. It acquired the present name of Charles City County in 1643.

Newport News (/ˌnuːpɔːrt -, -pərt -/) is an independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the fifth-most populous city in Virginia and 140th-most populous city in the United States. The city is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the northern shore of the James River to the river's mouth on the harbor of Hampton Roads.

Most of the area now known as Newport News was once a part of Warwick County, one of the eight original shires of Virginia formed in the British Colony of Virginia by order of Charles I of England in 1634. Newport News was a rural area of plantations and a small fishing village until after the American Civil War. In 1881, fifteen years of rapid development began under the leadership of Collis P. Huntington, whose new Peninsula Extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway opened up means of transportation for the railroad to bring West Virginia bituminous coal to port for coastal shipping. Within a few years, Huntington and his associates also built a large shipyard. Newport News was incorporated in 1896, the new incorporated town. In 1958, by mutual consent by referendum, Newport News was consolidated with Warwick, rejoining the two localities to approximately their pre-1896 geographic size under the more widely-known name of Newport News.

The Piedmont region of Virginia is a part of the greater Piedmont physiographic region, which stretches from the falls of the Potomac, Rappahannock, and James Rivers to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The region runs across the middle of the state from north to south, expanding outward to a width of nearly 190 miles at the border with North Carolina. To the north, the region continues from Virginia into central Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania.

Southside, or Southside Virginia, has traditionally referred to the portion of the state south of the James River, the geographic feature from which the term derives its name. This was the first area to be developed in the colonial period.

During the colonial era, Southside was considered the area where entrepreneurs settled, as opposed to some of the more established and wealthier families in the Tidewater counties. Many early Southside settlers were younger sons of established Tidewater families. A major portion of the territory was formed in 1703, when Prince George County was organized from Charles City County. Four other counties and three independent cities were formed from this territory, the counties in the 18th century and some of the independent cities in the 19th and 20th centuries.