Hampton Roads

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - APM Terminals, a sister company of the Maersk Sealand shipping line, said yesterday that it will spend more than $450 million to build a 300-acre container terminal in Hampton Roads that could increase by 50 percent the port of Hampton Roads' capacity to handle shipments. Gov. Mark R. Warner, speaking to business and government leaders at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal against the backdrop of the McKinney-Maersk container ship, said the investment is the single biggest private investment in Hampton Roads' history and one of the largest ever in Virginia.

Maersk Line, one of the largest steamship carriers at the port of Baltimore, is considering sharply reducing its service here as ,,TC result of its recent global alliance with Sea-Land Service Inc., according to sources in the maritime industry.Such a decision, which could come within months, would mean the loss of thousands of man-hours and represent a serious setback to the port's recent rebound.The sources say the Danish-based company could scrap a significant portion of the approximately 130 ship calls it makes here annually, opting instead to barge or truck cargo from Baltimore to its chief mid-Atlantic competitor, Hampton Roads, Va., or to New York.

The coastal area of southeastern Virginia, home to generations of sailors and a modestly priced spot for beach lovers, has somewhat surprisingly emerged as a powerhouse music town. In the past five years, some of the nation's top hip-hop tastemakers have begun sharing the neighborhood with Naval Station Norfolk and Naval Air Station Oceana. "I don't know what it was or how it exactly happened," said Virginia Beach native Chad Hugo, one-half of the Neptunes and one-third of N.E.R.D., two of the most blazing, on-fire, buzzed-out musical entities on the planet.

The "hallowed grounds" of the Civil War include some very hallowed waters.Americans and foreign visitors alike make pilgrimages to the great battlefields of the War Between the States in an unending stream. The names of these killing grounds have been immortalized and sanctified by the sacrifice they represent and the importance of their outcomes -- Gettysburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Fort Donelson, Shiloh.But a little more than an hour's drive from Richmond -- indeed, just a half an hour east from such historic destinations as Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown -- is a place that ought to be as honored.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. -- Possibly the Hampton Roads area hasn't heard there's a bad economy going on, that we need to be thrifty and not squander our resources. Instead, this happily cluttered corner of Virginia luxuriantly overflows with fascinating places, vistas and events to visit. There is history and natural beauty and industry and agriculture and big urban centers and beautiful rural scenes. There's culture and entertainment and sports and footprints from every era of the nation's past.

General cargo moving through Maryland Port Administration terminals declined 7.4 percent last year, reflecting the loss of major shipping lines in Baltimore and an overall decline in business at North Atlantic ports.According to the MPA, cargo fell 468,000 short tons from 6.3 million short tons in 1995 to 5.7 million short tons in 1996. The loss came primarily in containers as Maersk Line and Naverias Inc. abandoned most of their service here during the past 18 months. The decline in business translated into less work for the longshoremen who load and unload the cargo and others such as bay pilots.

TRAPPE -- For nearly 40 years, beach-bound Marylanders have sped past the old ferry that sits, squat and square, ever-changing yet seemingly indestructible, at the western end of the Choptank River bridge. The Hampton Roads' nine-lives kind of history has been limited only by the whimsy, vision and money of a procession of entrepreneurs. Among its incarnations: an upscale restaurant with white tablecloths, some lesser eateries, two or three different bars. There were a couple of antiques businesses -- including one set off by a red-white-and-blue paint job to mark the 1976 Bicentennial -- and an indoor flea market.

Among the events featured in next weekend's Civil War re-enactments in Harrisburg, Pa., will be a mock naval battle between two replicas of the world's first true iron-clad warships, the Confederacy's Virginia and the Union's Monitor. The two vessels, which will meet June 9 on the Susquehanna River, played small but important roles in the war and had profound impact on naval technology. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Union navy, which was superior in size and strength to the Confederate navy, began a blockade of Southern ports.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- No one asked which was the stronger naval power when the United States broke into Civil War. The North boasted a fleet of 42 warships. The South had virtually none.Yet, with the fall of Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Va., in April 1861, the Confederacy embarked on a daring gamble. Raising a scuttled Union frigate called the Merrimack, the rebels put more than 1,500 men to work around the clock, building an ironclad vessel that observers in both North and South soon began to describe as a "monster."

Pro basketballHeat: Signed F Bruce Bowen to a 10-day contract.HockeyCapitals: Reassigned G Marc Seliger from AHL Portland to ECHL Hampton Roads.Maple Leafs: Signed RW Mike Johnson.Penguins: Recalled C Richard Park from IHL Cleveland.CollegeGeorgia Southern: Announced resignation of Phylette Blake, women's assistant basketball coach.Pub Date: 3/17/97