Norfolk Map
Norfolk sits on the deep sheltered water where the James River meets Chesapeake Bay, and the United States Navy has built its largest base on the city's northern point.
Where is Norfolk?
Norfolk is in southeastern Virginia, on the north side of the Elizabeth River at Hampton Roads. Virginia Beach adjoins it on the east and Chesapeake on the south, with Portsmouth across the river and Hampton and Newport News on the Peninsula opposite. Richmond is about 90 miles northwest and Washington roughly 200 miles north. The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel carry Interstates 64 and 664 under the shipping channels rather than over them, so that nothing obstructs the naval traffic.
Norfolk at a glance
| State | Virginia |
| County | None — Norfolk is an independent city, outside any county |
| Population | 231,105 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 100 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Eastern Time |
| Region | South (South Atlantic division) |
Norfolk in Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city belonging to no county, in a state where that is the rule rather than the exception — the Virginia county map carries Norfolk, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and Richmond as separate units alongside its counties. It is the historic center of Hampton Roads even though two of its neighbors now have more people, because the port, the naval base, the rail terminus and the region's universities are here. The Virginia state page sets Tidewater against the Piedmont and the mountains.
Hampton Roads, the harbor and rising water
Hampton Roads is the natural harbor formed where the James, the Nansemond and the Elizabeth rivers empty together into the mouth of Chesapeake Bay — deep, ice-free and sheltered behind the capes, which is why the Navy chose it and why coal from the Appalachians has been railed to Lamberts Point for export for well over a century. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel crosses 17 miles of open water from the neighboring shore to Virginia's Eastern Shore. The downside of the site is elevation: the land is barely above sea level and is also slowly sinking, so Norfolk has one of the highest rates of relative sea-level rise on the Atlantic coast, and tidal flooding on ordinary days is now a routine part of the city's engineering.
Cities near Norfolk
Its Hampton Roads neighbors are Virginia Beach and Chesapeake; up the corridor are Richmond, Washington and Baltimore. For the coastline the region sits on, see the Atlantic coast page.