PORTSMOUTH. A city and the county-seat of Norfolk County, Va., on the Elizabeth River, opposite Norfolk. with which it is connected by ferry (Map: Virginia, H 5). The two cities, with Berkley constituting in reality a single munici pality, possess a fine harbor and good transpor tation facilities. The Seaboard Air Line termi-• mites in Portsmouth. The Atlantic Coast Line and the Southern Railway have depots here, and all other roads that enter Norfolk. except the Norfolk and Western, maintain connections with the city. The customs district of Norfolk and Portsmouth in 1901 ranked ninth among Atlantic coast ports in the value of its foreign commerce, aggregating over $10,902,000. See NortFoui.
Portsmouth, in contrast with Norfolk. is regu larly laid out, and is the home of many business men of the greater city. Its chief features in clude the United States Navy Yard. situated in
the southern part of the city, which has two large dry docks and a plant for the construction of steel vessels, and the United States Naval Hos pital and park in the northern portion of the city. There are in Portsmouth extensive cotton mills and other manufactories, and railroad shops of the Seaboard Air Line. The government, under a revised charter of 1803, is vested in a mayor, elected every four years, and a bicameral council, and in administrative officers, among whom the members of the school and health boards are chosen by the city council. Settled in 1752, Portsmouth was chartered as a city in 1858. Trinity Episcopal Church here was first built in 1762. Before the Revolutionary War, the British operated a ship-yard on the site of the present navy-yard. Population, in 1890, 13,268; in 1900, 17,427.