Cape Henry Memorial

Cape Henry Memorial IUCN Category V - Protected Landscape / Seascape
Stone cross at Cape Henry
location	Virginia Beach , USA
surface	1000 m²
Geographical location	36 ° 56 ′  N , 76 ° 0 ′  W Coordinates: 36 ° 55 ′ 41 ″  N , 76 ° 0 ′ 30 ″  W
administration	National Park Service

The Cape Henry Memorial at Cape Henry in Virginia Beach , Virginia is a memorial to the first landing of English settlers in North America on April 26, 1607. The colonists explored the area after their landing and gave the cape its name. Before continuing up the James River , where they founded the Jamestown settlement , they put a cross at the landing site. Today's stone cross was erected on April 26, 1935 by the Daughters of the American Colonists on an approximately 1,000 m² site. It commemorates the first landing as the beginning of British colonization of North America and thus as the origin of Canada and the United States of America.

From the memorial you can see the scene of the naval battle off Chesapeake Bay on September 5, 1781. In this decisive naval battle of the American War of Independence , a French squadron under Admiral Comte de Grasse defeated a British naval formation under Sir Thomas Graves , thus preventing the British supplying the British troops trapped at Yorktown under General Charles Cornwallis , which led to their surrender. A bronze statue of the admiral Comte de Grasse and a granite plaque commemorate this battle.

The Cape Henry Memorial is located on the grounds of the Fort Story Army Base, but is itself a branch of the Colonial National Historical Park .

Web links

• National Park Service: Cape Henry Memorial (official site; English)