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Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water and the region of land areas which surround it in southeastern Virginia in the USA. Hampton Roads is notable for its ice-free harbor, for U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force facilities, shipbuilding and repair yards, coal piers, and hundreds of miles of waterfront property and beaches, all of which contribute to the diversity and stability of the region's economy. The water area known as Hampton Roads (informally known locally as "the harbor") is one of the world's biggest natural harbors, and incorporates the mouths of the Elizabeth River and James River with several smaller rivers and itself empties into the Chesapeake Bay near its mouth leading to the Atlantic Ocean. The land area includes most of the cities, counties and towns in the southeastern corner of Virginia. The Virginia Peninsula and the South Hampton Roads subregions of Hampton Roads are sometimes collectively referred to as "Tidewater Virginia". However, that term properly applied also refers, geographically, to the entire coastal plain of Virginia including areas north of the Hampton Roads region. There are also frequent references to the "Seven Cities," the latter after the region's seven major cities: Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach, each of which is linked by the circumferential Hampton Roads Beltway. However, the region also includes the smaller independent cities of Franklin, Poquoson, and Williamsburg, as well as a number of counties and towns beyond the boundaries of the cities. The Hampton Roads metropolitan area (officially, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA) has a population of about 1.6 million, making it the 33rd-largest metropolitan area in the United States (behind only Atlanta and Charlotte in the Southeast) and the largest metropolitan area in the United States without a professional major league sports team. (There are minor league teams and several Division I-AA college teams in the area.) The area is steeped in 400 years of American history, and hundreds of historical sites and attractions in the area draw visitors from around the world each year. In late 2006, the Hampton Roads Partnership, a non-profit organization representing 17 localities, all local universities and major military commands as well as leading businesses in southeastern Virginia, commenced a campaign aimed at branding Hampton Roads as "America's First Region". The harbor was the key to the Hampton Roads area's growth, both on land and in water-related activities and events. Ironically, the harbor and its tributary waterways were (and still are) both important transportation conduits and obstacles to other land-based commerce and travel. Yet, the community leaders learned to overcome them. Many early bridges were constructed and funded privately through the collection of tolls. Later, state-sponsorship was required to fund larger projects. The area came to be known for its bridge-tunnel complexes, each innovatively designed and funded with toll revenue bonds, including the longest in the world across the entire mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.