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.
Farragut Naval Training Station
Ground was broken on the naval reservation in March 1942, and its first phase opened in early August; by September the base had a population of 55,000, making it the largest "city" in the state. At the time, Farragut was the second-largest training center in the world (behind Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago), and liberty trains ran three times daily to Spokane, Washington, about an hour away.