The Elizabeth River courses through the heart of Virginia. The Jamestown colonists recognized the river's strategic importance and explored its watershed almost immediately after the 1607 founding. The Elizabeth River traces four centuries of this historic stream's path through the geography and culture of Virginia.

The Oceanfront's Cottage Line, the music halls of Seaside Park, and dunes so large they dwarfed the old Cape Henry lighthouse are a memory. Gone too are many of the city's iconic landmarks and open spaces, lost to flood, fire, storm and the relentless onslaught of post-World War II development. With a deft hand and rare vintage images, historian Amy Waters Yarsinske recalls a time when the likes of Chuck Berry and Ray Charles played beneath the sizzling lights of the Dome and locals shagged the night away at the Peppermint Beach Club. Join Yarsinske as she takes one final stroll through a Virginia Beach lost to time.

Berthed today at NAUTICUS, the National Maritime Center, the USS Wisconsin (BB-64) was the last authorized of the four Iowa-class battleships, the largest American dreadnoughts ever built. Wisconsin saw action in World War II and the Korean Conflict for which the Big Wisky earned a collective six battle stars. Brought out of mothballs and recommissioned a second time on October 22, 1988, the Wisconsin saw action again during the Persian Gulf War but was decommissioned a third time on September 30, 1991. But this great piece of American history was not destined for a lengthy slumber. Resurrected by the city of Norfolk and USS Wisconsin Foundation, working in lockstep with the Navy, it has become a museum ship and Navy heritage site that continues the legacy of duty, honor, and country that was the calling card of Wisconsin's crew, and to inspire future generations of Americans.

In its first century and counting, NASA Langley Research Center [LaRC] has had a remarkable history that has stood out not only for the many outstanding achievements in flight and space exploration but the people who made it happen. "If there were a list of 100 people who contributed the most the progress in the world of flight, I believe Langley would provide the most names. Without question," observed astronaut, aeronautical engineer and the first man to walk on the Moon, Neil Alden Armstrong (1930 - 2012) on LaRC's nineteenth anniversary, "many of the giants of aero research spent their careers here, and many others, who learned their craft here, went on to lead other research efforts at other governments labs in the industry. Langley has been a powerhouse of creative thinking." With a centennial theme of "inventing the future," NASA LaRC is poised to enter its second century of ingenuity and invention with a wealth of pending and proposed research, and near-term prognostication may prove a bit easier.

Richmond is a city with a pedigree, a past that can be traced back to the first English settlers who landed at Jamestown in 1607. Yet the focus of this volume is the twentieth century, which was, by all rights, America's century and Richmond's rebirth as a modern, changed city. "The closer Richmond moved toward the twentieth century, the more it seemed to be a city of archives and icons, the 'holy city' of the Confederacy, and an American industrial city, reflecting the prosperity and problems of mass production," wrote historian Marie Tyler-McGraw, of the city that had held on so tightly to its status as capital of the Confederacy and bastion of the South's cause in the war. "The Lost Cause as a form of civil religion for the South was especially evocative in Richmond," McGraw continued, "Yet the political influence of the Lost Cause zealots was probably not as great as its acolytes imagined. Both politicians and businessmen found the Lost Cause to be a malleable concept, adaptable to new circumstances." Richmond was ready for a makeover - and it got it.