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Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank County on the North Carolina Coastal Plain. It is located near the mouth of the Pasquotank River and is the Gateway to the Outer Banks.
Founded as the town of Redding in 1793 on land acquired from Adam and Elizabeth Tooley. In 1794 the town was renamed Elizabeth and in 1801 Elizabeth City. The name change has been variously attributed to honoring either Queen Elizabeth I of England, who 200 years earlier spearheaded the colonization of the Carolina and Virginia coasts or Elizabeth "Betsy" Tooley. Elizabeth City is in North Carolina's Inner Banks region, and is nicknamed the "Harbor of Hospitality".
Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 18,683. Elizabeth City is the county seat and largest city of Pasquotank County. It is the cultural, economic, and educational hub of the sixteen-county Historic Albemarle region of northeastern North Carolina. Elizabeth City is the center of the Elizabeth City Micropolitan Statistical Area, with a population of 64,094 as of 2010, and is part of the larger Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC Combined Statistical Area. The city is the economic center of the region, as well as home to many historic sites and cultural traditions.
Marketed as the "Harbor of Hospitality", Elizabeth City has had a long history of shipping due to its location at a narrowed bend of the Pasquotank River. Founded in 1794, Elizabeth City prospered early on from the Dismal Swamp Canal as a mercantile city, before later shifting into a varied industrial and commercial focus. While Elizabeth City still retains its extensive waterfront property, it is linked to neighboring counties and cities by highways and bridges, and hosts one of the largest United States Coast Guard bases in the nation.