New Castle, Delaware
New Castle is a city in New Castle County, six miles south of Wilmington, situated on the Delaware River. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the city is 5,285. New Castle was settled by the Dutch West India Company in 1651, under the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant, on the site of a former aboriginal village, "Tomakonck", to assert their claim to the area based on a prior agreement with the aboriginal inhabitants of the area; the Dutch named the settlement Fort Casimir, but this was changed to Fort Trinity following its seizure by the colony of New Sweden on Trinity Sunday, 1654. The Dutch conquered the entire colony of New Sweden the following year and rechristened the fort Nieuw-Amstel; this marked the end of the Swedish colony in Delaware as an official entity, but it remained a semi-autonomous unit within the New Netherland colony and the cultural and religious influence of the Swedish settlers remained strong. As the settlement grew, Dutch authorities laid out a grid of streets and established the town common, which continue to this day.
In 1664, the English seized the entire New Netherland colony in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. They made it the capital of their Delaware Colony; the Dutch regained the town in 1673 during the Third Anglo-Dutch War but it was returned to Great Britain the next year under the Treaty of Westminster. In 1680, New Castle was conveyed to William Penn by the Duke of York by livery of seisin and was Penn's landing place when he first set foot on American soil on October 27, 1682; this transfer to Penn was contested by Lord Baltimore and the boundary dispute was not resolved until the survey conducted by Mason and Dixon, now famed in history as the Mason–Dixon line. The spire on top of the Court House, Delaware's colonial capitol and first state house, was used as the center of the Twelve-Mile Circle forming the northern boundary of Delaware; the Delaware River within this radius to the low water mark on the opposite shore is part of Delaware. Thus the Delaware Memorial Bridge was built as an intrastate span by Delaware, without financial participation by neighboring New Jersey.
Prior to the establishment of Penn's Philadelphia, New Castle was a center of government. After being transferred to Penn, Delaware's Swedish and English residents used to the relaxed culture of the Restoration monarchy grew uncomfortable with the more conservative Quaker influence, so Delaware petitioned for a separate legislature, granted in 1702. Delaware formally broke from Pennsylvania in 1704. New Castle again became the seat of the colonial government, thriving with the various judges and lawyers that fueled the economy. Many smaller houses were replaced in this era. In February 1777, John McKinly was elected the first President of Delaware. During the Revolution, when New Castle was besieged by William Howe, the government elected to move its functions south to Dover in May 1777. McKinley was captured by the held prisoner for several months. New Castle remained the county seat until after the Civil War, when that status was transferred to Wilmington. Three signers of the Declaration of Independence were from New Castle—Thomas McKean, George Read, George Ross.
The 16-mile portage between the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay saved a 400-mile trip around the Delmarva Peninsula, so this brought passengers and business to New Castle's port. In the years following the Revolution, a turnpike was built to facilitate travel between the two major waterways. New Castle became the eastern terminus of the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad, the second-oldest rail line in the country, launched in 1828 with horse-drawn rail cars converting to steam power when an engine was purchased from Great Britain in 1832; the line traversed the Delmarva Peninsula, running to the Elk River, from where passengers changed to packet boats for further travel to Baltimore and points south. This helped the New Castle economy to further boom; the decline in New Castle's economy had the long-range fortunate effect of preventing most residents from making any significant structural changes to their homes. So, the many buildings of historic New Castle look much as they did in the colonial and Federal periods.
New Castle has a tradition, dating back to 1927, of tours of historical homes and gardens. These tours, called "A Day in Olde New Castle", are held on the third Saturday of May. Householders dress in colonial costumes and an admittance fee is collected, used toward the maintenance of the town's many historic buildings. In June the town holds its annual Separation Day celebration. On April 28, 1961, an F3 tornado hit the north side. Although no fatalities or injuries occurred, it was the only tornado of this magnitude recorded in Delaware. In the City of New Castle, many small and historical neighborhoods are within the city limits. However, many larger neighborhoods are surrounding the city limits and are labeled as New Castle within the general consensus; the New Castle area ranges from the southern city limits of Wilmington to the north, the Delaware River to the East, Wrangle Hill Road to the South, Bear and Christiana to the West. City of New Castle Shawtown Dobbinsville Washington Park Battery Park 6th & DelawareOutside neighborhoods Chelsea Estates Penn Acres Collins Park Minquadale Wilmington Manor Commons Boulevard Midvale Jefferson Farms Castle H
Bay Coast Railroad
The Bay Coast Railroad operated the former Eastern Shore Railroad line from Pocomoke City, Maryland, to Norfolk, Virginia. The Bay Coast Railroad interchanged with the Norfolk Southern Railway at Norfolk and the Delmarva Central Railroad at Pocomoke City, Maryland. Following the lease of 162 miles of Norfolk Southern track on the Delmarva peninsula by the Delmarva Central Railroad in December 2016, the interchange changed from NS to the DCR. Construction of a rail line from Pocomoke City to Cape Charles was completed on October 25, 1884, operated as the New York and Norfolk Railroad, its founder, Alexander Johnston Cassatt, designed a barge large enough to carry 18 railcars. His barges provided the new railroad with its connection across the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk by April 1885; the railroad's co-founder, coal magnate William Lawrence Scott, financed construction of the new town of Cape Charles in 1884 at the point where the railroad's northern section met the Chesapeake Bay. From its inception, the NYP&N operated profitably and contributed to an economic boom on the Delmarva peninsula that continued until the Great Depression.
By 1928, The Pennsylvania Railroad had taken over the NYP&N's operations and were looking for a faster route to the port to interchange with the Norfolk & Western. So in 1929 the PRR built the little creek yard in the little creek area of Virginia Beach near the Norfolk/Virginia Beach line; this small but impressive yard had a float bridge for carfloats carrying passengers and mixed freight across the Chesapeake Bay from Cape Charles and places farther north such as Philadelphia and New York. The PRR had a small shop building next to the yard for repairing locomotives; this new route saved the Pennsy 25 miles of carfloat travel from Cape Charles to Norfolk. After World War II, railroad passenger use declined in favor of the automobile. Passenger service on the NYP&N ended on January 12, 1958. In an effort to preserve freight rail service on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Accomack counties formed the Accomack-Northampton Transportation District Commission; the commission purchased the rail line in 1976 and selected Virginia and Maryland Railroad Company as its operator.
Eastern Shore Railroad, Inc. replaced Virginia and Maryland as the operator in 1981. In 2005, Cassatt Management, LLC was selected as operator and the railroad acquired its current name. BCR had three distinct operating areas; the 64.1-mile northern portion of its rail system connects with the Delmarva Central Railroad in Pocomoke City and the system's car float in Cape Charles, Virginia. A car float, crossing 26 miles of the Chesapeake Bay from Cape Charles to Norfolk, comprises the middle portion; the southern end of the system is a terminal track around Little Creek, connecting with Norfolk Southern Railway, CSX Transportation, the Norfolk and Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad. At the regular meeting of the Accomack-Northampton Transportation District Commission held at the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce Building, Virginia, on Monday, November 6, 2017 at 5:30 p.m. BCR President Alex Parry "reported that the DCP traffic has been lost from the Little Creek side. DCP traffic amounted to 75% of the carloads handled by the railroad.
In January 2018 the BCR suffered another loss when customer Bayshore Concrete announced it was putting its Cape Charles plant up for sale in the wake of declining business. BCR used two tug boat-guided railroad car floats of 25 and 15 car capacity to link the 26-mile water route across the Chesapeake Bay between Cape Charles and Norfolk — using the north and south terminals of the now defunct Little Creek-Cape Charles Ferry; this car float operation had been in continuous service since April 1885, was one of only two remaining in the United States, the other being New York New Jersey Rail, LLC. In late March 2014 VP for operations Larry LeMond stated the railroad had not run the barge for more than a year and a half and had no intention to resume the service, he stated that all of the railroad's traffic comes into Pocomoke City to the north and the company operates every other day. An article in Delmarva Now online dated January 14, 2019 noted that the minutes of the Accomack-Northampton Transportation District Commission meeting of December 4, 2018 stated, "The rail car barge Nandua has been sold."
The buyer, Iron Planet, seeks to sell it for $200,000. In 2007, Bay Creek Railway began operating a self-propelled dining car along BCR track, making one- to two-hour round trips from Cape Charles; this passenger excursion service used a restored interurban railcar built in 1913 by St. Louis Car Company, it served the former Texas Electric Railway in Dallas, Texas as car number 316. When Texas Electric ceased operating in 1948, its fleet of interurban railcars was sold for salvage. Car number 316 was used as a cabin at a ranch in Fort Worth, Texas until its restoration for the Bay Creek Railway. By December 21, 2011 the car was listed for sale on the Ozark Mountain Railcar equipment broker website; the initial asking price was $260,000 reduced to $205,000. The dining car was sold, loaded onto a flat bed trailer and departed Cape Charles on March 11, 2014.? It is now on the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad, a tourist line in Wisconsin. Note: Both MRS1 locomotives, out of service for many years, were scrapped on site in 2011.
Note: Both GP10 2000 and 2001 are out of service. 2000 had a set of trucks swapped with GP38 2014 in August 2013 and appears to be missing a compressor. 2001 is missing a set of truck
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest and most populous city in the U. S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of the first Swedish settlement in North America, it is at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine River, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, prime minister in the reign of George II of Great Britain; as of the 2017 United States Census estimate, the city's population is 72,846. It is the fifth least populous city in the U. S. to be the most populous in its state. The Wilmington Metropolitan Division, comprising New Castle County, DE, Cecil County, MD and Salem County, NJ, had an estimated 2016 population of 719,876; the Delaware Valley metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey, had a 2016 population of 6,070,500, a combined statistical area of 7,179,357.
Wilmington is built on the site of Fort Christina and the settlement Kristinehamn, the first Swedish settlement in North America. The area now known as Wilmington was settled by the Lenape band led by Sachem Mattahorn just before Henry Hudson sailed up the Len-api Hanna in 1609; the area was called "Maax-waas Unk" or "Bear Place" after the Maax-waas Hanna. It was called the Bear River because it flowed west to the "Bear People", who are now known as the People of Conestoga or the Susquehannocks; the Dutch heard and spelled the river and the place as "Minguannan." When settlers and traders from the Swedish South Company under Peter Minuit arrived in March 1638 on the Fogel Grip and Kalmar Nyckel, they purchased Maax-waas Unk from Chief Mattahorn and built Fort Christina at the mouth of the Maax-waas Hanna. The area was known as "The Rocks", is located near the foot of present-day Seventh Street. Fort Christina served as the headquarters for the colony of New Sweden which consisted of, for the most part, the lower Delaware River region, but few colonists settled there.
Dr. Timothy Stidham was a prominent doctor in Wilmington, he was born in 1610 in Hammel and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is recorded as the first physician in Delaware; the most important Swedish governor was Colonel Johan Printz, who ruled the colony under Swedish law from 1643 to 1653. He was succeeded by Johan Rising, who upon his arrival in 1654, seized the Dutch post Fort Casimir, located at the site of the present town of New Castle, built by the Dutch in 1651. Rising governed New Sweden until the autumn of 1655, when a Dutch fleet under the command of Peter Stuyvesant subjugated the Swedish forts and established the authority of the Colony of New Netherland throughout the area controlled by the Swedes; this marked the end of Swedish rule in North America. Beginning in 1664 British colonization began. A borough charter was granted in 1739 by King George II, which changed the name of the settlement from Willington, after Thomas Willing, to Wilmington after Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington.
Although during the American Revolutionary War only one small battle was fought in Delaware, British troops occupied Wilmington shortly after the nearby Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. The British remained in the town until they vacated Philadelphia in 1778. In 1800, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, a French Huguenot, emigrated to the United States. Knowledgeable in the manufacture of gunpowder, by 1802 DuPont had begun making the explosive in a mill on the Brandywine River north of Brandywine Village and just outside the town of Wilmington; the DuPont company became a major supplier to the U. S. military. Located on the banks of the Brandywine River, the village was annexed by Wilmington city; the greatest growth in the city occurred during the Civil War. Delaware, though remaining a member of the Union, was a border state and divided in its support of both the Confederate and the Union causes; the war created enormous demand for goods and materials supplied by Wilmington including ships, railroad cars, gunpowder and other war-related goods.
By 1868, Wilmington was producing more iron ships than the rest of the country combined and it rated first in the production of gunpowder and second in carriages and leather. Due to the prosperity Wilmington enjoyed during the war, city merchants and manufacturers expanded Wilmington's residential boundaries westward in the form of large homes along tree-lined streets; this movement was spurred by the first horsecar line, initiated in 1864 along Delaware Avenue. The late 19th century saw the development of the city's first comprehensive park system. William Poole Bancroft, a successful Wilmington businessman influenced by the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, led the effort to establish open parkland in Wilmington. Rockford Park and Brandywine Park were created due to Bancroft's efforts. Both World Wars stimulated the city's industries. Industries vital to the war effort – shipyards, steel foundries, machinery, a
Milton, Delaware
Milton is a town in Sussex County, United States, on the Delmarva Peninsula. It is located on the Broadkill River; the population was 2,576 at the 2010 census, an increase of 55.5% over the previous decade. It is part of the growing Cape Region and lies within the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. Delaware Route 5 passes through Milton. Located at the head of the Broadkill River, which enters Delaware Bay, the Milton area was first settled in 1675 by English colonists and founded as "Head of Broadkiln" in 1763, it became important for shipbuilding. The town was known by renamed by the Delaware Legislature in 1807, in honor of the English poet John Milton; the Delaware General Assembly passed a charter on March 17, 1865 that recognized the Town of Milton as a municipality. History and Milton's shipbuilding heritage remain important to the town, home to some of the finest Victorian and Colonial architecture in Delaware. Many of the homes have been restored to their original form those on Union and Federal streets.
Milton has 198 contributing structures listed within its Federal Register Historic District. Significant buildings and sites are the Lydia Black Cannon Museum, the Governor James Carey home, the Chestnut Street Cemetery, the Governor David Hazzard Mansion; the Hazzard House and Gov. James Ponder House were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973; the Milton Historic District was added in 1982. Milton serves local residents and summer tourists in the Milton, Broadkill Beach and Primehook Beach areas with family-operated businesses and new office and shopping complexes. Several local businesses in the area are served by the Delmarva Central Railroad, which operates a branch that extends to Milton from Ellendale. Recreational opportunities abound with the Broadkill River, Wagamon's Pond, Diamond Pond and Lavinia Pond. Public boat docks and fishing piers are available, it is within an easy drive to the coastal resorts of Delaware. A footpath known as the Governors Walk follows the Broadkill River in central Milton.
The Nature Conservancy established a preserve along the river downstream of Milton in 1998. As of 2005, an annual canoe and kayak race was being held on the river in Milton; the river passes through and feeds Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge to the east before entering Delaware Bay. Milton is the home of a well-known East Coast beer-maker. Milton is located along the Broadkill River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.2 square miles, of which, 1.1 square miles of it is land and 0.1 square miles of it is water. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,657 people, 700 households, 438 families residing in the town; the population density was 1,568.5 people per square mile. There were 804 housing units at an average density of 761.1 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 67.11% White, 24.32% Black, 0.24% Native American, 0.48% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 6.04% from other races, 1.69% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.93% of the population.
There were 700 households out of which 31.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.3% were married couples living together, 20.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 37.4% were non-families. 31.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.4% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.90. In the town, the population was spread out with 24.6% under the age of 18, 10.2% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, 16.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 78.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 71.8 males. The median income for a household in the town was $32,368, the median income for a family was $40,313. Males had a median income of $26,065 versus $23,269 for females; the per capita income for the town was $17,016. About 12.8% of families and 18.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.6% of those under age 18 and 14.0% of those age 65 or over.
Joseph M. Carey, Governor of Wyoming from 1911-1915. David Hazzard, Delaware Governor. Robert G. Houston, lawyer, politician. James Ponder, Delaware Governor. Bryan Stevenson, activist, law professor.
Conrail
Conrail was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name, while it no longer operates trains it continues to do business as an asset management and network services provider in three Shared Assets Areas that were excluded from the division of its operations during its acquisition by CSX Corporation and the Norfolk Southern Railway; the Federal Government created Conrail to take over the potentially-profitable lines of multiple bankrupt carriers, including the Penn Central Transportation Company and Erie Lackawanna Railway. After railroad regulations were lifted by the 4R Act and the Staggers Act, Conrail began to turn a profit in the 1980s and was privatized in 1987; the two remaining Class I railroads in the East, CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway, agreed in 1997 to acquire the system and split it into two roughly-equal parts, returning rail freight competition to the Northeast by undoing the 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central Railroad that created Penn Central.
Following approval by the Surface Transportation Board, CSX and NS took control in August 1998, on June 1, 1999 began operating their respective portions of Conrail. The old company remains a jointly-owned subsidiary, with CSX and NS owning 42 percent and 58 percent of its stock, corresponding to how much of Conrail's assets they acquired; each parent, has an equal voting interest. The primary asset retained by Conrail is ownership of the three Shared Assets Areas in New Jersey and Detroit. Both CSX and NS have the right to serve all shippers in these areas, paying Conrail for the cost of maintaining and improving trackage, they make use of Conrail to perform switching and terminal services within the areas, but not as a common carrier, since contracts are signed between shippers and CSX or NS. Conrail retains various support facilities including maintenance-of-way and training, as well as a 51 percent share in the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad. In the years leading to 1973, the freight railroad system of the United States was collapsing.
Although government-funded Amtrak took over intercity passenger services in 1971, railroad companies continued to lose money due to extensive government regulations and excessive labor cost, competition from other transportation modes, declining industrial business, other factors. Its largest Eastern railroad, the Penn Central Railroad, had declared bankruptcy in 1970, after less than three years of existence. Formed in 1968 by the merger of the New York Central Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad, the PC was created with no plans to merge the varied corporate cultures, the resulting company was a hopelessly entangled mess. At its lowest point, PC was losing over $1 million a day and trains were becoming lost all over the railroad. In 1972, Hurricane Agnes damaged the rundown Northeast railway network and threatened the solvency of other railroads, including the somewhat more solvent Erie Lackawanna. In mid-1973, officials with the bankrupt Penn Central threatened to liquidate and cease operations by year's end if they did not receive government aid by October 1.
This threat to US freight and passenger traffic galvanized the Congress to create a bill to nationalize the bankrupt railroads. The Association of American Railroads, which opposed nationalization, submitted an alternate proposal for a government-funded private company. Judge Fullam forced the Penn Central to operate into 1974, when, on January 2, after threatening a veto, President Richard Nixon signed the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 into law; the "3R Act," as it was called, provided interim funding to the bankrupt railroads and defined a new Consolidated Rail Corporation under the Association of American Railroads' plan. The 3R Act formed the United States Railway Association, another government corporation, taking over the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission with respect to allowing the bankrupt railroads to abandon unprofitable lines; the USRA was incorporated February 1, 1974, Edward G. Jordan, an insurance executive from California, was named president on March 18 by Nixon.
Arthur D. Lewis of Eastern Air Lines was appointed chairman April 30, the remainder of the board was named May 30 and sworn in July 11. Under the 3R Act, the USRA was to create a "Final System Plan" to decide which lines should be included in the new Consolidated Rail Corporation. Unlike most railroad consolidations, only the designated lines were to be taken over. Other lines would be sold to Amtrak, various state governments, transportation agencies, solvent railroads; the few remaining lines were to remain with the old companies along with all abandoned lines, many stations, all non-rail related properties, thus converting most of the old companies into solvent property holding companies. The plan was unveiled July 26, 1975, consisting of lines from Penn Central and six other companies—the Ann Arbor Railroad, Erie Lackawanna Railway, Lehigh Valley Railroad, Reading Company, Central Railroad of New Jersey and Lehigh and Hudson River Railway. Controlled railroads and jointly owned railroads such as Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines and the Raritan River Railroad were included.
It was approved by Congress on November 9, on February 5, 1976 President Gerald Ford signed the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Refor
Delmarva Peninsula
The Delmarva Peninsula, or Delmarva, is a large peninsula on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia. The peninsula is 170 miles long. In width, it ranges from 70 miles near its center, to 12 miles at the isthmus on its northern edge, to less near its southern tip of Cape Charles, it is bordered by the Chesapeake Bay on the west, the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Elk River and its isthmus on the north. In older sources, the peninsula between Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay was referred to variously as the Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula or the Chesapeake Peninsula; the toponym Delmarva is a clipped compound of Delaware and Virginia, which in turn was modeled after Delmar, a border town named after two of those states. While Delmar was founded and named in 1859, the earliest uses of the name Delmarva occurred several decades and appear to have been commercial; the northern isthmus of the peninsula is transected by Delaware Canal.
Several bridges cross the canal, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel join the peninsula to mainland Maryland and Virginia, respectively. Another point of access is Lewes, reachable by the Cape May–Lewes Ferry from Cape May, New Jersey. Dover, Delaware's capital city, is the peninsula's largest city by population, but the main commercial area is Salisbury, near its center. Including all offshore islands, the total land area south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is 5,454 sq mi. At the 2000 census the total population was 681,030, giving an average population density of 124.86 inhabitants per square mile. Cape Charles forms the southern tip of the peninsula in Virginia; the entire Delmarva Peninsula falls within the Atlantic Coastal Plain, a flat and sandy area with few or no hills. The fall line, found in the region southwest of Wilmington and just north of the northern edge of the Delmarva Peninsula, is a geographic borderland where the Piedmont region transitions into the coastal plain.
Its Atlantic Ocean coast is formed by the Virginia Barrier Islands in the south and the Fenwick Island barrier spit in the north. The culture on Delmarva is starkly different from the rest of the Mid-Atlantic region and is much like that of the Southern United States. Many Delmarva counties are much more conservative than the "mainland" counties of Delaware and Virginia. Delmarva is driven by commercial fishing. Most of the land is rural, there are only a few large population centers. Many dialect studies show that Delmarva residents have a variation of Southern American English, prevalent in rural areas; the border between Maryland and Delaware, which resulted from the 80-year-long Penn–Calvert Boundary Dispute, consists of the east-west Transpeninsular Line and the perpendicular north-south portion of the Mason–Dixon line extending north to just beyond its tangental intersection with the Twelve-Mile Circle which forms Delaware's border with Pennsylvania. The border between Maryland and Virginia on the peninsula follows the Pocomoke River from the Chesapeake to a series of straight surveyed lines connecting the Pocomoke to the Atlantic Ocean.
All three counties in Delaware—New Castle and Sussex—are located on the peninsula. Of the 23 counties in Maryland, nine are on the Eastern Shore: Kent, Queen Anne's, Caroline, Wicomico and Worcester, as well as a portion of Cecil County. Two Virginia counties are on the peninsula: Northampton; the following is a list of some of the notable towns on the peninsula. Chestertown, Maryland, is the home of Washington College. Centreville, Maryland, is the county seat of Queen Anne's County. Easton, Maryland, is the county seat of Talbot County. St. Michael's, Maryland, is a popular tourist destination. Dover, Delaware, is the Delaware state capital and the peninsula's largest city in terms of population. Lewes, Delaware, is the site of the first European colonization in Delaware, is nicknamed "the first town in the first state", is a port city for the Cape May–Lewes Ferry. Ocean City, Maryland, is a popular resort town. Crisfield, Maryland, is a notable source of seafood. Seaford, the "Nylon Capital of the World", is the largest city in Sussex County.
Salisbury, Maryland, is the county seat of Wicomico County, the second largest city in the peninsula and the lower peninsula's only urbanized area. It is known as the "Crossroads of Delmarva", it is home to the Salisbury–Ocean City–Wicomico Regional Airport, the only airport on the peninsula with scheduled commercial flights. Delmar, part of the Salisbury Urbanized Area, lies across the Maryland-Delaware border from its twin, Delaware, on the Transpeninsular Line. Chincoteague, Virginia, is noted for its wild ponies and its beaches, administered by the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service through Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Princess Anne, Maryland, is the county seat of Somerset County. Cambridge, Maryland, is a busy port on the Choptank River. Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, "the Nation's Summer Capital", has a sixteenfold increase in population from winter to
Dover, Delaware
Dover is the capital and second-largest city in the U. S. state of Delaware. It is the county seat of Kent County, the principal city of the Dover, DE Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Kent County and is part of the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD Combined Statistical Area, it is located on the St. Jones River in the Delaware River coastal plain, it was named by William Penn of Dover in England. As of 2010, the city had a population of 36,047. First recorded in its Latinised form of Portus Dubris, the name derives from the Brythonic word for waters; the same element is present in the towns Modern Welsh forms. The city is named after Kent in England. Dover was founded as the court town for newly established Kent County in 1683 by William Penn, the proprietor of the territory known as the "Lower Counties on the Delaware." In 1717, the city was laid out by a special commission of the Delaware General Assembly. The capital of the state of Delaware was moved here from New Castle in 1777 because of its central location and relative safety from British raiders on the Delaware River.
Because of an act passed in October 1779, the assembly elected to meet at any place in the state they saw fit, meeting successively in Wilmington, Dover, New Castle, Lewes again, until it settled down permanently in Dover in October 1781. The city's central square, known as The Green, was the location of many rallies, troop reviews, other patriotic events. To this day, The Green remains the heart of Dover's historic district and is the location of the Delaware Supreme Court and the Kent County Courthouse. Dover was most famously the home of Caesar Rodney, the popular wartime leader of Delaware during the American Revolution, he is known to have been buried outside Dover. A cenotaph in his honor is erected in the cemetery of the Christ Episcopal Church near The Green in Dover. Dover and Kent County were divided over the issue of slavery, the city was a "stop" on the Underground Railroad because of its proximity to slave-holding Maryland and free Pennsylvania and New Jersey, it was home to a large Quaker community that encouraged a sustained emancipation effort in the early 19th century.
There were few slaves in the area, but the institution was supported, if not practiced, by a small majority, who saw to its continuation. The Bradford-Loockerman House, Building 1301, Dover Air Force Base, John Bullen House, Carey Farm Site, Christ Church, Delaware State Museum Buildings, John Dickinson House, Dover Green Historic District, Eden Hill, Delaware Governor's Mansion, Hughes-Willis Site, Loockerman Hall, Macomb Farm, Mifflin-Marim Agricultural Complex, Old Statehouse, Palmer Home, Town Point, Tyn Head Court, Victorian Dover Historic District are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Dover is located at 39°09′29″N 75°31′28″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 22.7 square miles, of which 22.4 square miles is land and 0.3 square miles, or 1.32%, is water. Dover has humid subtropical climate. Summers are hot and humid, with 23 days per year reaching or surpassing 90 °F. Brief, but heavy summer thunderstorms are common. Winters are moderated by the Delaware Bay and the partial shielding of the Appalachians, though there are 8−9 days when the daily high remains below freezing and 15 nights with lows below 20 °F. Snow is light and sporadic, averaging only 15.7 inches per season, does not remain on the ground for long.
Spring and autumn provide transitions of reasonable length and are similar, though spring is more wet. The monthly mean temperature ranges from 35.2 °F in January to 77.7 °F in July. The annual total precipitation of around 46 inches is spread rather evenly year-round. Dover averages 2300 hours of sunshine annually. In 2010, Dover had a population of 36,047 people; the racial makeup of the city was 48.3% White, 42.2% African American, 0.5% Native American, 2.7% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 2.1% from other races, 4.1% from two or more races. 6.6% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. As of the census of 2000, there were 32,135 people, 12,340 households, 7,502 families residing in the city; the population density was 1,435.0 people per square mile. There were 13,195 housing units at an average density of 589.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 54.94% White, 37.22% African American, 0.45% Native American, 3.16% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.57% from other races, 2.62% from two or more races.
4.13% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 12,340 households out of which 30.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.4% were married couples living together, 16.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 39.2% were non-families. 31.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.6% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.98. In the city of Dover the age distribution of the population shows 23.5% under the age of 18, 15.7% from 18 to 24, 27.9% from 25 to 44, 19.5% from 45 to 64, 13.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.1 males. The median income for a household in the city was $38,669, the median income for a family was $48,338. Males had a median income of $34,824 versus $26,061 for females; the per
