Hampton Roads
Beginning in 1917, as the United States became involved in World War I under President Woodrow Wilson, formerly rural Sewell's Point became the site of what grew to become the largest Naval Base in the world which was established by the United States Navy and is now known as the Naval Station Norfolk.
Bermuda Garrison
Regular soldiers invalided from continental battlefields as part of the Royal Garrison Battalion had been stationed in Bermuda between 1778 and 1784 during the American War of Independence, but were withdrawn following the Treaty of Paris. US independence cost the Royal Navy all of her continental bases between the Canadian Maritimes and the West Indies. As a result, the Admiralty began purchasing land around Bermuda, especially at the under-developed West End, with a view to establishing a dockyard and naval base there. The Royal Naval establishment began with facilities in the town of St. George's in 1795, and by 1812 the island hosted an Admiralty and a dockyard, as well as a naval squadron during the winter. These facilities were to play a major role in the American War of 1812, and Bermuda would develop into the Royal Navy's largest and most important base in the Western Hemisphere.