Virginia's Historic Triangle

The Tidewater region of Virginia is perhaps best known for being home to the Historic Triangle. Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg are all located here. Tidewater VA Bed and Breakfasts are close to:

• Jamestown, the country's first permanent English settlement,

• Colonial Williamsburg, the cultural and political center of the New World from 1699 to 1780.

• Yorktown, where the Revolutionary War was effectively ended after the British surrendered.

British settlers arrived in Jamestown in 1607. They believed that the Virginia colony was "a paradise inhabited by simple, friendly people", for that is what they had been told back home. Yet they found hardship, not wealth or good fortune. The colony struggled until 1614, when settler John Rolfe harvested a profitable crop of tobacco and married Pocahontas, a Powhatan woman. Peace with the Native Americans and Britain's tobacco addiction enabled the struggling colony to thrive, and colonists began to arrive by the thousands. Williamsburg is located midway between James River and York River. It was garrisoned and fortified in 1633, and became home to the country's second institution of higher learning in 1693, when King William and Queen Mary granted a royal charter to the College of William and Mary. Indeed, it was college students who successfully lobbied to locate the new statehouse in their town. Williamsburg, as it was then named, became the capital of the area in 1699, as well as a thriving market town. It was a town where both goods and ideas were exchanged. The York River has a deep channel, and the village on its banks has been a deep water, international port since the early 17th century. Yorktown was the chief tobacco port on the Chesapeake Bay in the early 18th century, and an active slave port. Yorktown gained everlasting fame when American troops under George Washington resoundingly defeated the British at Yorktown and effectively ended the American Revolutionary War with the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. The town itself, however, was the main victim of the battle, and it never again prospered as it had prior to the war. There is much to do in Virginia's Historic Triangle. Travel back in time in Colonial Williamsburg. Visit the Battlefield and Victory Center at Yorktown, and the historic settlements at Jamestown. It would be easy to spend months exploring this area. Williamsburg Bed and Breakfasts and Yorktown Bed and Breakfasts welcome travelers however long their stay. See Colonial Williamsburg for more information about events and activities. See Jamestown and Yorktown for more information about events and activities. See