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Hampton Roads and Tidewater Terminology
(For more Norfolk geography tidbits, click here.)
In the latter half of the 20th century, the term "Tidewater," or "Southside," has been applied to the region of southeastern Virginia on the southern side of the body of water called Hampton Roads (see Part ZZZ, Creeks/Rivers…), and it generally applies to Norfolk in particular and usually Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake, as well.  Conversely, the portion of southeastern Virginia on the opposite (northern) shore of Hampton Roads has been known as "the Peninsula," or "Virginia Peninsula," referring primarily to the cities and counties on the peninsula formed by the York River on the north and the James River on the south -- including especially Hampton and Newport News and often as far west as Williamsburg and James City County.
But regional monikers such as Tidewater, Hampton Roads, and the Southside have replaced simply "Norfolk" or even "Greater Norfolk" because of the growing push for regional cooperation. And such cooperation was not much thought about until 1963, when, suddenly, Norfolk was no longer the main city in the area, and the surrounding counties were either merged into or turned into other cities, thereby leaving Norfolk with no more land to annex in its future.
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