The Jackson Ward neighborhood is the city's traditional hub of African American commerce and culture, once known as the "Black Wall Street of America" and the "Harlem of the South.

The greater metropolitan area includes several Fortune 500 companies: Performance Food Group, Altria, CarMax, Dominion Energy, Markel, Owens and Minor, Genworth Financial, and ARKO Corp.[14][15][16] The city is one of about a dozen to have both a U.S. Court of Appeals and a Federal Reserve Bank.

After the first permanent English-speaking settlement was established at Jamestown, Virginia, in April 1607, Captain Christopher Newport led explorers northwest up the James River to an inhabited area in the Powhatan Nation.

Decades of conflicts between the Powhatan and the settlers followed, including the Battle of Bloody Run, fought near Richmond in 1656, after tensions arose from an influx of Manahoacs and Nahyssans from the North.

[27] The canal started in Westham and cut east to Richmond, facilitating the transfer of cargo from flat-bottomed James River bateaux above the fall line to the ocean-faring ships below.

The factory produced artillery and other munitions, including heavy ordnance machinery and the 723 tons of armor plating that covered the CSS Virginia, the world's first ironclad ship used in war.

Three years later, Richmond became indefensible in March 1865 after nearby Petersburg fell and several remaining rail supply lines to the south and southwest were broken.

In the early morning of April 3, Confederate troops exploded the city's gunpowder magazine, killing several paupers in a temporary Almshouse and a man on 2nd St.

[34] Later that day, General Godfrey Weitzel, commander of the 25th Corps of the United States Colored Troops, accepted Richmond's surrender from the mayor and a group of leading citizens who did not evacuate.

After Campbell spun the note to Confederate legislators as a possible end to the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln rescinded his offer and ordered General Weitzel to prevent the state legislature from meeting.

[39] A decade after the Civil War, Richmond resumed its position as a major urban center of economic productivity with iron front buildings and massive brick factories.

Tobacco warehousing and processing continued to play a central economic role, advanced by the world's first cigarette-rolling machine that James Albert Bonsack of Roanoke invented between 1880 and 1881.

[46] Freed slaves and their descendants created a thriving African-American business community, and the city's historic Jackson Ward became known as the "Wall Street of Black America."

[51] On January 1, 1970, Richmond's borders expanded south by 27 sq mi (70 km2) and its population increased by 47,000 after several years of court cases in which Chesterfield County unsuccessfully fought annexation.

Significant bodies of water in the region include the James River, the Appomattox River, and the Chickahominy River.The Richmond-Petersburg Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), the 44th largest in the United States, includes the independent cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights, Hopewell, and Petersburg, and the counties of Charles City, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, New Kent, Powhatan, and Prince George.

[63] Neighborhoods such as Chestnut Hill-Plateau and Barton Heights began to be developed at the end of the 19th century when the new streetcar system made it possible for people to live on the city's outskirts and commute downtown.

The coldest weather normally occurs from late December to early February, and the January daily mean temperature is 37.9 °F (3.3 °C), with an average of 6.0 days with highs at or below the freezing mark.

[115] The city of Richmond is Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is home to the current bishop, Most Reverend Barry C. Knestout, appointed by Pope Francis on December 15, 2017.

[117] Richmond's strategic location on the James River at the rocky fall line separating Virginia's Piedmont and Tidewater regions made it a natural development point for commerce.

For centuries and three modes of transportation — boats, with the Great Turning Basin; railroad, with the world's only triple crossing of rail lines; and cars, with two intersecting major interstates— the downtown has always been a natural hub.

The area is home to six Fortune 500 companies: electric utility Dominion Energy; CarMax; Owens & Minor; Genworth Financial; MeadWestvaco/ WestRock; and Altria Group.

Beth Ahabah Museum and Archives collects, preserves, and exhibits materials that focus on Jewish history and culture specifically connected to Richmond.

Musicians of note associated with Richmond include Jason Mraz, Jimmy Dean, Agents of Good Roots, Aimee Mann, Alabama Thunderpussy, Avail,[138] Broadside, Carbon Leaf, Cannabis Corpse, Cracker, D'Angelo, Denali, Down to Nothing, Engine Down, Four Walls Falling, Iron Reagan,[139] Lamb of God, Municipal Waste, Nettspend, Nickelus F, River City High, Sparklehorse, Strike Anywhere, Chris Brown, Eric Stanley, Bad Omens, Gwar and Fighting Gravity.

Other noteworthy authors who have called Richmond home include Pulitzer-winning Ellen Glasgow, controversial figure James Branch Cabell, Meg Medina, Dean King, David L. Robbins, and MacArthur Fellow Paule Marshall.

The architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, home to Gordon Bunshaft, designed the Library of Virginia and the General Assembly Offices at the Eighth and Main Building.

Richard Neutra designed Rice House, a residence on a private James River Island, is Richmond's only true International Style home.

[citation needed] Richmond's urban residential neighborhoods, largely single use town homes with mixed full retail/dining establishments, are keys to the city's character.

Maymont, adjacent to Byrd Park, is a 100-acre (40 ha) Victorian estate with a museum, formal gardens, native wildlife exhibits, nature center, carriage collection, and children's farm.

In 1977, a federal district court ruled in favor of Curtis Holt Jr. who had claimed the council's existing election process — an at large voting system — was racially biased.

Several other natural gas plants provide extra power during peak demands, including facilities in Chester, and Surry, and two in Richmond, Gravel Neck and Darbytown.