The York River is a navigable estuary, approximately 40 mi (64 km) long, in eastern Virginia in the United States. It ranges in width from 1 mi. (1.6 km) at its head to 2.5 mi (4 km) near its mouth on the west side of Chesapeake Bay. Its watershed drains an area including portions of 17 counties [1] of the coastal plain of Virginia north and east of Richmond. Enormously important in U.S. history, it was the scene of early settlements of the Virginia Colony and played a significant role in both the American Revolutionary War and the American Civil War.