Christopher Newport Cross

This tour takes you to three of the known sites for the Christopher Newport Cross.

On May 24, 1607, Captain John Smith, Captain Christopher Newport, and twenty-two others sailed up the James River and arrived at the site of modern-day Richmond, Virginia USA. Hoping to find a passage the Pacific, they found instead a fortified Indian village with outlying agricultural fields. Newport, advised by the leader of the village not to proceed farther than the falls, where a rival group of Indians lived, traveled the next day short distance upstream. There he planted a cross in honor of King James I of England, probably on a small islet not too far from the falls.

On June 10, 1907, the event was commemorated with a monument of stones assembled in the form of a pyramid about three meters high on the top of which was placed a copper cross of about 0.5 meters. This monument was located on "Gamble's Hill" at the end of South Third and South Fourth Streets in Richmond, where there is today a park called "Gamble's Hill Park" located next to the Ethyl Corporation's world headquarters and overlooking the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredeger.

On March 2, 1936 the monument was recorded as being in Gamble's Hill. At an undetermined date thereafter, the monument was moved to a location about 10 meters south of east Canal Street and one meter north of the Martin's Agency parking lot. There it still exists in a deteriorated state.

In 2000, the metal cross and plaque from the original 1907 monument was moved to a new stone foundation on the Canal Walk where it may be seen about six meters south of the intersection of 12th Street and Byrd Street.

Created by bhuddles09