| The
Outer Banks consists of over a 100-mile (160-km) string of pristine
beaches and narrow barrier islands on the East Coast of the United States.
The Outer Banks forms approximately the northern half of North
Carolina's Atlantic coastline. The Outer Banks was the site of the Wright brothers'
first flight in 1903 in what is now Kill Devil Hills, NC, at the Wright Brothers National Monument,
also site of First Flight Airport. The Outer Banks are also the site where the
unsuccessful British colony termed the Lost Colony [1] vanished without a
trace from Roanoke Island in 1587, where the first Briton was born on
American soil (Virginia Dare). The Outer Banks are now a major tourist
destination known for temperate weather and wide expanses of open
beachfront. The homes in Outer Banks go from small apartments to huge homes
of 5 bedrooms and more! The northern part of the Outer Banks from Oregon Inlet
northward is considered part of the North American mainland, although it
is technically cut apart from the mainland by the Intracoastal Waterway
passing through the Great Dismal Swamp, which occupies much of the
mainland to the west of the Outer Banks. It is part of a continuous sand
ridge extending well into the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia. For all
practical purposes, it is a barrier island; there is no road access from
Virginia through the ridge. Road access to the northern Outer Banks ends
in Corolla, North Carolina with other communities such as Carova only
being accessible by four-wheel drive vehicles. The island itself is not
anchored to an offshore coral reef like some other barrier islands and
suffers significant beach erosion during some severe storms known to
locals. The position of the Outer Banks punching out into
the Atlantic makes the area the most hurricane-prone area north of
Florida, for both landfalling storms and brushing storms offshore. The
easternmost point is Cape Point at Cape Hatteras on Hatteras Island, site
of the famous candy-striped Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. The lighthouse weighs
4800 tons and was moved 2900 feet. The natives are known as
"Bankers". The area is also home to colonies of wild horses,
known as "Banker Ponies", descended from Spanish Mustangs washed
ashore centuries ago in shipwrecks. Noted colonies exist near Corolla and
on Ocracoke Island, the home base of pirate Edward Teach also known as
Blackbeard. Ocracoke Island is only accessible by ferry from the southern
tip of Hatteras Island, although local shops sell bumperstickers that
state "Hatteras-Ocracoke Tunnel Permit". Another popular sticker
appears to be a legitimate handicapped parking permit, but it shows a
person in a wheelchair on a surfboard with the caption "Surfing
Impaired- Too Old, Too Fat, Don't Care". The popular "OBX"
sticker is shown below. |
Copyright 2006 Internet Brands, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".