Norfolk is the Navy's city - Naval Station Norfolk is the world's largest naval base, the aircraft carriers visible from the waterfront, the personnel and dependents forming a significant portion of the population. The city of 240,000 anchors the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, the natural harbor that made naval presence inevitable since colonial times. But Norfolk faces an existential threat: sea level rise. The tides are higher each year; the flooding is more frequent; the infrastructure that the Navy depends on is increasingly underwater. Norfolk is America's second most vulnerable city to sea level rise after New Orleans, the naval headquarters building on borrowed time.
Naval Station Norfolk is the world's largest naval base - 14 piers, 11 aircraft hangars, 134,000 personnel including contractors, the aircraft carriers that project American power worldwide berthed in a row. The base opened in 1917 and has expanded continuously since, the Navy and the city becoming inseparable. The carrier tours (available when ships are in port) provide the closest most civilians get to naval aviation. The jets from nearby Oceana pass overhead constantly. The base is Norfolk's identity and economic foundation; what happens to the base happens to the city.
Norfolk floods regularly - high tides, storm surges, heavy rains, the water appearing in streets that weren't underwater a generation ago. The city is sinking (geological subsidence) while the sea is rising (climate change); the combined effect is 18 inches of relative sea level rise since 1930, accelerating. The flooding threatens naval operations: ships can't sail if the roads to the base are flooded; equipment can't function underwater. The Navy and the city are investing billions in flood control - sea walls, pumps, raised streets - but the long-term viability is uncertain. Norfolk may become unlivable within decades.
The Ghent neighborhood provides Norfolk's urban character - the walkable streets, the restaurants and shops, the tree-lined avenues that feel like somewhere people want to live. Ghent was Norfolk's first streetcar suburb; the houses from the early 1900s give it character that newer areas lack. The neighborhood is where young professionals live, where the restaurants concentrate, where Norfolk approximates the urban life that the sprawl elsewhere doesn't provide. Ghent is what Norfolk points to when it wants to show it's more than a Navy town.
The Chrysler Museum of Art holds one of America's finest glass collections - the result of Walter Chrysler Jr.'s passion for glass art and his decision to donate his collection to Norfolk. The museum is free, the collection strong in multiple media, the glass galleries extraordinary. The Chrysler represents Norfolk's cultural ambition, the reminder that the city has identity beyond military function. The museum draws visitors who might not otherwise come; the glass collection alone justifies the trip.
Norfolk is served by Norfolk International Airport (ORF). The Nauticus maritime museum and the battleship Wisconsin provide naval heritage; carrier tours are available when ships are in port (check schedules). The Chrysler Museum is essential and free. The Ghent neighborhood offers dining and walking. The MacArthur Memorial honors the general who grew up here. For the beach, Virginia Beach is 20 minutes east. The ferry to Portsmouth offers harbor views. The weather is mid-Atlantic: humid summers, mild winters. Norfolk rewards visitors who appreciate naval heritage and understand the flooding threat.
Located at 36.85°N, 76.29°W on the Elizabeth River where it meets Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. From altitude, Norfolk appears as urban development around the water - Naval Station Norfolk visible as a massive installation with carriers at pier, the Elizabeth River winding through, the vulnerability to sea level rise apparent in the low-lying terrain. What appears from altitude as the Navy's headquarters city is the world's largest naval base - where aircraft carriers line the waterfront, where the city and the Navy are inseparable, and where rising seas threaten everything.