The Ferry Is the Oldest Commute in Hampton Roads — and Still the Best One
Paddlewheel-profile ferries have crossed the Elizabeth River between Norfolk and Portsmouth since 1636. The modern paddle-wheeler takes 5 minutes, costs pocket change, and beats the tunnels on their worst days.
The first ferry across the Elizabeth River was licensed in 1636, which makes the Norfolk–Portsmouth crossing — give or take a few centuries of boats — the oldest commute in Hampton Roads. The current incarnation, Hampton Roads Transit's paddlewheel-styled ferries between North Landing in Portsmouth and the downtown Norfolk waterfront, crosses in about five minutes and remains the region's most civilized rush hour.
The ferry's virtues are arithmetic and aesthetic at once. It docks at Harbor Park's doorstep for Tides games, at Waterside for downtown, and in Portsmouth's Old Town for its restaurants and museums — the two downtowns of the Southside, knitted by a boat that predates the cities' rivalry by three centuries. Cyclists ride free of the tunnel prohibitions that bar them from the region's tubes; a bike and a ferry pass is a complete transportation plan for the urban Southside.
Its modern role is bigger than nostalgia: HRT's Elizabeth River Ferry is a working link in the transit network, timed to buses on both shores, part of a regional system that includes The Tide light rail in Norfolk and an expanding bus network. When the Downtown Tunnel snarls — an hourly possibility — the ferry's five-minute indifference is the best argument for the network's redundancy.
November crossings have their own weather: wind chop on the river, the harbor's working traffic passing close, Portsmouth's church spires and Norfolk's skyline taking turns as the view. Take it once this month for no reason but the crossing. Some infrastructure you use. The ferry you ride — and remember being a city on a river.
