The Chesapeake Bay is an aquatic habitat for many animals. You might see turtles, herons, geese, ducks, oysters, eels, and jelly fish. You might even spot a sandbar shark.
One of the most famous creatures in the Chesapeake Bay is the blue crab.
If you look at a map of Virginia, you will see a blue line that runs like a vein from the Bay to the Appalachian Mountains. This is the river that we now call the James. It is six million years old. If you follow the blue line you will see where the river has its slow trickling start in the mountains.
For thousands of years, the male blue crab has tried to follow that blue line; he loves to swim from the Chesapeake Bay up the James River. He does this to get food. His back legs are shaped like paddles to help swim and he uses his two front claws to catch his prey as he travels. He is a good swimmer, but he can’t swim all the way. When he comes to the part of the river where there are lots of rocks, rushing waters, and currents he has to turn around. The currents are very rough and are hard to get through.
In 1607, an explorer and sea captain named Christopher Newport first came to Virginia. He was sent by the King James of England to find riches and to transport settlers who would create a settlement that would claim part of the New World for England. When Christopher Newport and Captain John Smith explored the James River, they did not know what the blue crab knew. They found that, like the crab, their ship could not get past the falls. Like the crab, they turned around and went back towards the Chesapeake Bay. They went back to a place where the James River was much wider than it was at the falls of the James. They created a settlement there and called it Jamestown.
Many years later, a city would be built at the Falls of the James. Can you guess the name of that city? If you are downtown and you look at the James River, you will see lots of rocks and rough currents. You are looking at “The Falls of the James.” Think how different it must have looked to Christopher Newport and John Smith!
