http://hampton.roads.net/nhr/portsmouth/ (World Wide Web Directory, ~04/1995)Portsmouth is located on the world's greatest natural harbor, and has a long and fascinating history. Spanish galleons passed these shores in the 1580s, and the land was surveyed by Captain John Smith in 1608. As the home of the nation's oldest and largest naval shipyard, Portsmouth played an integral part in the Revolutionary War, when Cornwallis abandoned his headquarters in Portsmouth to move to Yorktown, and again in the Civil War, when the Monitor and the C.S.S Virginia (Merrimac) ironclads dueled to usher in a new era of naval history. A study by the American Institute of Architects has cited Portsmouth as having the largest concentration of architecturally noteworth eighteenth and nineteenth century dwellings on the East Coast between Olde Towne, Alexandria and Charleston, South Carolina. Portsmouth is a city that cherishes its distinguished past and looks forward to an exciting future.City of Portsmouth
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