Virginia has played a significant role in United States history, as the site of Jamestown, the first successful English settlement on the continent, and can be considered the birthplace of America. Virginia was home to several historic figures, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Robert E. Lee. Located halfway down the East Coast and nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the Appalachian Mountains, Virginia’s culture reflects a blend of the North and South, with traces of its colonial past, which can be experienced in Colonial Williamsburg, the nations largest living history museum.