A strategic location at the broad mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and an extensive deep-water harbor made colonial NORFOLK the main American trading port, and in the mid-eighteenth century it was the largest city in Virginia. After being burned by the British in 1775, and suffering naval bombardments during the Civil War, the modern city is little more than a supply depot for the vast naval shipyards. Along with Hampton and Newport News on the north side of the James River, Norfolk is home to the largest naval base outside Russia, and carriers, cruisers and all manner of gray-steel behemoths steam past incessantly.