At the census , the population was , 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 Newport News was a rural area of plantations and a small fishing village until after the American Civil War.
In , 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 , the new incorporated town. In , by mutual consent by referendum, Newport News was consolidated with Warwick , rejoining the two localities to approximately their pre geographic size under the more widely-known name of Newport News.
With many residents employed at the expansive Newport News Shipbuilding , the joint U. Air Force β Army installation at Joint Base LangleyβEustis , and other military bases and suppliers, the city's economy is very connected to the military. The location on the harbor and along the James River facilitates a large boating industry which can take advantage of its many miles of waterfront. Newport News also serves as a junction between the rails and the sea with the Newport News Marine Terminals located at the East End of the city.
Served by major eastβwest Interstate Highway 64 , it is linked to other cities of Hampton Roads by the circumferential Hampton Roads Beltway , which crosses the harbor on two bridge-tunnels. The original area near the mouth of the James River was first referred to as Newportes Newes as early as The source of the name Newport News is not known with certainty, though it is the oldest English city name in the Americas.
