Cape Henry (Virginia) landed the first English settlers in America


26 april 1607         USAUSA, Virginia

USA, Virginia

Jamestown was, famously, the site of the first permanent English settlement in America. But before its pioneers looking for better lives could build on that spot, they had to get to there. And their first landing was not at Jamestown but at Cape Henry.

After a difficult Atlantic crossing, three London Company ships reached the cape — a dune-ringed tongue of forested land at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay — on April 25, 1607. Their 144 passengers must have wanted nothing more than to lie down for a long nap on Mother Earth after four and a half months at sea.

There was no time to dally, though, so they stayed just long enough to name the cape after one of King James’s sons, put up a wooden cross, and thank God for their safe arrival. Then they boarded their vessels again to sail inland and upriver, seeking a more sheltered place to call home. They founded Jamestown, near what is now Colonial Williamsburg, a few days later.

The settlers’ arrival wasn’t the only historic event at Cape Henry. It is also the site of America’s first lighthouse, built in 1792. The sea off this coast was the scene of the Revolutionary War’s largest naval battle.

Now, the Cape Henry Memorial, part of Colonial National Historical Park in Virginia, commemorates those events with the Cape Henry Memorial Cross and a statue of Admiral Francois-Joseph Paul Comte de Grasse, who helped the colonists best the British fleet. The original lighthouse (you can climb to the top) and a second one, built after the first was damaged during the Civil War, are also still standing at Cape Henry.

Ссылка на источник: https://www.yahoo.com/style/bp/april-26--1607--english-settlers-make-“first-landing”-in-america-at-cape-henry-201525589.html


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