Roanoke (Virginia)

Association

The settlement, originally called Big Lick, was founded in 1852 and received a charter in 1874. It was named after large layers of salt that emerged to the surface, which lured wild animals to a place near the Roanoke River . In 1882, it was renamed Roanoke and in 1884 it received a charter as the urban district of Roanoke. They say that the name Roanoke comes from the Algonkin word meaning "money" shells. This is also the name of the river dividing the city (possibly from where shells were taken) and the district in half. The city grew more often due to accessions in the middle of the 20th century. The last accession took place in 1976. State legislature has since banned cities from joining the lands of neighboring counties. Roanoke is located on the Blue Ridge Range, in the middle of the Roanoke Valley between Maryland and Tennessee , making it an important transportation hub in the west of Virginia and contributing to its rapid growth.

Colonial influence

In colonial times, important roads passed through the area where the city is now located. The Great Wagon Road , one of the roads with the most heavy traffic in the 18th century in America, went from Philadelphia through the Shenandoah Valley to the future location of Roanoke, where the Roanoke River flows through the Blue Ridge . The Roanoke Pass proved to be a convenient route for immigrants who settled in the Piedmont region of Carolina . After the Roanoke Passage, another important traffic artery of those times branching off from the Great Wagon Road, the Wilderness Road, which ran southwest to Tennessee.

Railways and coal

In the 1850s, Big Lick became the Virginia and Tennessee (V&T) station that connected Lynchburg and Bristol on the Virginia- Tennessee border.

After the American Civil War (1861–1865), William Mahone , a civil engineer and battle hero at Voronka , was the driving force in linking 3 railways, including V&T, across the southern part of Virginia to form the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railway ( AM&O), a new line extended from Norfolk to Bristol in 1870. However, the stock market crash of 1873 in the United States undermined AM&O finances. After several years of work under the control of Mahone, his role as a railway builder was ended in 1881, when financial circles from the north seized control. At an auction for the sale of mortgaged property, AM&O was bought by EW Clark and Co , a private bank in Philadelphia that operated the Shenandoah Valley Railroad , then under construction to the Hagerstown Valley in Maryland . AM&O has been renamed the Norfolk and Western Railway.

Frederick D. Kimball , a civil engineer and partner at Clark's firm, led the new line and the new Shenandoah Valley railway. The junction of the Shenandoah Valley and Norfolk and Western Kimball railways and the board of directors have chosen the small Virgin village of Big Face, on the Roanoke River. Although the appreciative townspeople suggested renaming their settlement “Kimball,” they agreed to the name Roanoke by the name of the river. Due to the fact that the Norfolk and Western railway attracted people and created jobs, the city of Roanoke quickly grew and became an urban district in 1884. At the same time, Roanoke became a city so quickly that it received the nickname "Magic City" (Magic City).

Kimball's enthusiasm for geology was effective in developing the Pocahontas coal field in West Virginia and West Virginia. Thanks to his efforts, Norfolk and Western laid railway lines across the uninhabited areas of West Virginia north to Columbus and Cincinnati in Ohio and south to Durham and Winston-Salem in North Carolina . This gave the railway a route network that was subsequently used for over 60 years.

The Virgin Railroad (VGN), an engineering marvel of the time, was conceived and implemented by William Nelson Page and Henry Huttleston Rogers . Following the Roanoke River, the Virgin Railway was built through the city of Roanoke at the beginning of the 20th century. It merged with the Norfolk and Western railways in 1959.

The discovery of coal deposits made the Norfolk and Western railways prosperous, and the bituminous coal from the Pocahontas field was world famous. Transported by the Norfolk and Western Railways and the Virginia Railroad, local coal is fuel for half of the world's navy. Today it burns in the furnaces of steel mills and coal-fired power plants around the world.

The Norfolk and Western railway was also famous for its own production of steam locomotives. It was located in the Roanoke workshops of the Norfolk and Western railways, which made the company well-known due to the quality of its steam traction. In the Roanoke workshops, with their thousands of workers, the famous locomotives of classes A, J and Y6 were designed, created and maintained. New steam locomotives were assembled here until 1953 , a long time after diesel-electric locomotives appeared and became the main driving force of most North American railways. Around 1960, the Norfolk and Western Railway was the last major railway in the United States to be in the process of switching from steam to diesel.

The presence of the railway also made Roanoke attractive to manufacturers. American Viscose opened a large viscose factory in southeast Roanoke in October 1917. This factory closed in 1958, leaving 5,000 people unemployed. After the Norfolk and Western railroads switched to diesel electric locomotives, 2,000 workers were cut.

Cultural Center

EventZone was created in 2003 by merging a variety of existing event organizers. EventZone is also involved in assisting in the creation of new festivals and events in the “event zone” of downtown Roanoke, which is defined as all areas between Williamson Road, 6th Street, SW, Roanoke Civic Center ) and Rivers Edge Park.

LocalColors is a multicultural program that values ​​people of different backgrounds, races and ethnic backgrounds and sponsors the annual Local Colors Festival, which takes place on the 3rd weekend of May.

Among the festivals and cultural events taking place in Roanoke, the following can be noted: Chili Cook-Off, Festival in the Park , Local Colors Festival, Henry Street Festival, Big Lick Blues Festival, Strawberry Festival, as well as a large red-white-blue luminous star on Mount Mill (Mill Mountain Star) and visible from many points of the city and the surrounding area.

Roanoke has a model of urban governance called the “weak mayor”, which is headed by a bunch of mayor - a city manager. The city manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the city authorities and has the authority to hire and fire city workers. The mayor has a small, if any, executive branch and is essentially the “first among equals” in the city council. The mayor, however, has a pulpit as a Roanoke media, often the appearance and statements of the mayor. Currently, the mayor of Roanoke is David A. Bowers , and the city manager is Darlene Barham . The city council has 6 members, not counting the mayor, all of which are elected on a free basis. The proposal to move to the city council, in which the mayor and vice-mayor could continue to be elected on a free basis, was rejected by the Roanoke voters in a 1997 vote, but advocates of the proposal still argue that the results of the freely chosen system in a disproportionate number of city council members comes from rich neighbors and that the election of some of all council members on a ward basis will result in a more equal representation of all areas of the city. The four-year term of the city council members is in doubt, therefore there are elections every 2 years. The candidate who receives the most votes is appointed by the vice mayor for the next 2 years.

Voting blocs of African Americans and city professionals have made the Democratic Party a leader in the city in recent years.

Independent candidate David A. Bowers, formerly a Democrat, defeated incumbent mayor Nelson Harris in the May 2008 election with 53% of the vote. In the 2000 elections, Ralph C. Smith and Nelson Harris won in 2004 with less than 40% of the vote.

In the May 2008 consul election, Democrats Kurt Rosen, Enita Price, and Sherman Lee defeated a group of independent candidates including incumbent Brian Wischneff.

Roads

Interstate 581 is the city’s main road from north to south. There is also the only Interstate 81 interstate motorway running along the city’s northern borders. Interstate 581 is parallel to US Route 220, which continues under the name Roy L. Webber Expressway from Downtown Roanoke, where Interstate 581 ends, south to State Route 419. US Route 220 connects Roanoke with Martinsville (Virginia) and Greensboro (North Carolina). The proposed Interstate 73 motorway will be generally parallel to US Route 220 between Roanoke and Greensboro and parallel to Interstate 581 within the city. The main motorway from east to west is US Route 460, named Melrose Avenue and Orange Avenue. US Route 460 connects Roanoke with Lynchburg. US Route 11 passes through the city, mainly like Brandon Avenue and Williamson Road, which was the center of development of the automotive industry after World War II. The remaining main roads are US Route 221, State Route 117 (known as Peters Creek Road) and State Route 101 (known as Hershberger Road). The Blueridge Park Freeway also runs close to city borders.

Roanoke is divided into 4 quadrants: northwest (NW), northeast (NE), southwest (SW), southeast (SE). Postal addresses for places in Roanoke include two letters of the abbreviated quadrant after the street name. For example, Center in the Square in downtown Roanoke has the address “1 Market Square SE”.

Airports

Roanoke Blacksburg Regional Airport is located in the northern part of the city and is the main passenger and cargo airport in southwestern Virginia.

Roanoke has 7 twin cities that are members of the International Twin Cities :

•   Florianopolis , Brazil
•   Kisumu , Kenya
•   Lijiang , China
•   Pskov , Russia
•   Saint-Lo , France
•   Wonju , South Korea
•   Opole , Poland

• Shaunessy, Francis (1911-1982) - American hockey player, bronze medalist of the 1936 Winter Olympics.
• Mather, John Cromwell (born 1946) - American physicist, Nobel laureate in physics (2006).
• Cecily Tynan (born 1969) is an American journalist and television presenter.
• Ross Copperman (born 1982) is an American singer and producer nominated for a Grammy Award.