When the guns of World War I first echoed 100 years ago, the impact was immediate and transformational in Hampton Roads in ways that had few parallels in the country.
The region's 21st century economy still rests on the foundation built in the second decade of the 20th century. An economic explosion began with cargo shipments that doubled in 1915 and doubled again in 1916. Neighborhoods emerged to accommodate the burgeoning population drawn to jobs in shipbuilding and later to house sailors who overran Norfolk once America entered the war.
Declarations of war ensnared six European countries between July 28 and Aug. 6, 1914. Around the world and in Hampton Roads, expectations were that the war would be brief - "less than six months," a Ledger-Dispatch editorial suggested. The Great War, however, dragged on until 1918.
President Woodrow Wilson's initial quest for neutrality was grounded in the idea that America could position itself to broker peace. Zealous isolationists, particularly in the South, wanted nothing to do with the war in Europe. Norfolk, however, had a stronger international outlook thanks to its identity as a port city.
America supplied all sides. In Hampton Roads, tons of coal, lumber, fertilizer and foodstuffs were laded on French, British and Russian ships. Early on, American goods also reached Germany, whose straw buyers routed shipments through neutral European countries. The 132,000 horses shipped to the battlefields of France underscore how the traditions of 19th century wars were eclipsed by the tanks, heavy artillery and machine guns that came to mark conflict in the 20th century.
Cargo ships leaving the region's ports were often searched and seized by British naval vessels tasked with halting the flow of supplies to Germany. The Virginian-Pilot's "Shipping Intelligence" report noted in mid-September 1914 that the British were holding dozens of ships, including several recently departed from Hampton Roads. German vessels took the same liberties with their enemies' cargo ships.
American warships routinely held maneuvers around Hampton Roads in the months after the war began. Exercises around Tangier Sound perturbed chicken farmers who claimed that reverberations from the ships' 14-inch guns killed unhatched chicks in incubators and frightened hens from their nests.
The biggest imprint left on Hampton Roads by the war was, of course, the U.S. Navy's acquisition of the 1907 Jamestown Exposition site. The Navy already had a considerable presence in the region, and after years of inaction on a proposal to build a base, Congress approved the purchase of 474 acres for $1.2 million and pledged $1.6 million more to develop what would become Naval Base Norfolk. Virginian-Pilot editor Lenoir Chambers wrote, "Nothing of greater importance had come into the life of Norfolk since it was established as a town."
The region's boomtown economy had considerable downsides, both before and especially after that purchase. Acute housing shortages, inadequate water supplies, unpaved roads at the dawn of the automobile age and an antiquated transportation system demanded speedy solutions. In a distant echo of issues that still bedevil the region, a meeting called to discuss road improvements was sparsely attended because heavy rains had left many dirt and shell roads impassable.
As the region's population soared, so did Norfolk's reputation as a bawdy city. Dance halls proliferated, prostitution arrests multiplied, venereal disease spread, and disorders broke out regularly. Questions arose about whether Norfolk and its government would be able to handle the rapid expansion that its World War I economy required.
Across the nation, the conflict made "poppy fields," "mustard gas," and "trench warfare" part of the lexicon of war. Families whose forefathers fell on those distant battlefields or returned to home to share stories were, of course, powerfully affected by the "war to end all wars."