Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads, a wide channel in southeastern Virginia by which the James River enters Chesapeake Bay. (A road, or roads, is a safe anchorage that is less enclosed than a harbor.) Bordering Hampton Roads are Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth. The area has been a major seaport and naval base for many years. Hampton Roads was the site of the Civil War battle between the ironclads Monitor and Merrimack (Virginia) (1862).