Williamsburg began as Middle Plantation, and outpost of Jamestown, in 1633. IT was the midway and highest point of a palisade that the settlers built across the peninsula between the James and York rivers.

Because of its strategic location nd strength of its defenses, Middle Plantation soon became important to the colony. In 1676 rebel Nathaniel Bacon and his followers held a convention, and a year later the General Assembly met after Bacon burned the statehouse at Jamestown.

When the capital of the colony was removed from Jamestown in 1699, Middle Plantation was laid out and renamed Williamsburg in honor of King William III. For 81 years it was the seat of government and the social and cultural center of Virginia. In 1780 Governor Thomas Jefferson relocated the capital to Richmond, 50 miles west at the fall line of the James River.

Colonial Williamsburg "That the future may learn from the past," is the theme of Colonial Williamsburg, a restoration project without equal. Through extensive research, the colonial area of the city, a mile long and nearly 1/2 a mile wide, has been restored as nearly as possible to its 18th century appearance.

Within this historic area are 88 buildings that have survived from the 18th and 19th centuries. A number of buildings that had disappeared have been faithfully rebuilt on the sites of the original structures. Tickets are required to enter restored buildings and bus tours, not for self-guided walking tours of the area.