Darryl Blackstock

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. Established in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, it is the only university in the United States to be designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, an honor it shares with nearby Monticello. UVA... is one of the eight original Public Ivies. The 2012 edition of U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Virginia as the 2nd best public university in the United States, and the overall 25th best university in the nation. UVA's initial Board of Visitors included former Presidents of the United States Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. The site of the University was once farmland owned by Monroe, whose law office and farmhouse is now the site of Brown College at Monroe Hill, a residential college at the University. UVA competes in 23 varsity sports within the Atlantic Coast Conference. UVA's athletic program finished third in the NACDA Directors' Cup rankings in 2010. In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, UVA athletes won 4 medals, including two gold medals.
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Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News... Point on the harbor of Hampton Roads. The area now known as Newport News was once a part of Warwick County. Warwick County was one of the eight original shires of Virginia, formed by the House of Burgesses in the British Colony of Virginia by order of King Charles I, in 1634. The county was largely composed of farms and undeveloped land until almost 250 years later. In 1881, 15 years of explosive development began under the leadership of Collis P. Huntington, whose new Peninsula Extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway from Richmond opened up transportation along the Peninsula and provided a new pathway for the railroad to bring West Virginia bituminous coal to port for coastal shipping and worldwide export. With the new railroad came a terminal and coal piers where the colliers were loaded. Within a few years, Huntington and his associates also built a large shipyard.
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