Newport, founded in 1639, is an internationally known resort and sailing community that offers small-town charm with many of the benefits and challenges of an urban community. Roughly half of the City falls within historic districts and is home to a significant number of Colonial, Victorian and Gilded Age buildings.
Newport has 26K full-time residents and is home to the Naval War College, Salve Regina University, Community College of Rhode Island, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Newport Hospital, Cliff Walk, the Inter-national Yacht Restoration School and is the site of the inter-national renowned Folk, Jazz, and Classical music festivals. The City recently hosted the America’s Cup Trials and Volvo Ocean Racing events and is a destination of up-wards of 3,000,000 national and international visitors annually.
The City of Newport is located at the southern end of Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay, about 30 miles southeast of Rhode Island's capital of Providence. The City is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the south, Narragansett Bay on the west, and by the Town of Middletown on the northeast. Newport is 11 square miles in size, with 7.7 square miles of land and 3.3 square miles of inland water. Location is readily accessible to the west by Interstate 95 via the Jamestown and Pell Bridges, and to the north by Routes 24 and Interstate 195 via the Mount Hope Bridge and the Sakonnet River Bridge.
