Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near Camp Okee Gloucester Point, VA

Gloucester Point is a census-designated place in Gloucester County, Virginia — an unincorporated community on the north side of the York River in southeastern Virginia, directly across the river from historic Yorktown.

Gloucester Point had a population of 10,587 at the 2020 census, up from 9,402 in 2010.

Census Bureau QuickFacts survey data for 2020–2024 counts about 4,379 households in Gloucester Point averaging 2.54 people each, with about 67.0% of housing units owner-occupied.

The point was explored by Christopher Newport, John Smith and Robert Tyndall in 1608 and was originally known as Tyndall's Point; it sits downstream from Werowocomoco, which had been the capital of the Powhatan Confederacy since 1609.

More than two-fifths of the Gloucester Point CDP is water — about 42.58% of its 16.4 square miles — made up of the tidal York River and its inlets, including Sarah Creek and part of Timberneck Creek.

U.S. Route 17 crosses the York River from Gloucester Point on the George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge to Yorktown, where the American Revolution ended, and leads north about 12 miles to Gloucester Courthouse, the Gloucester County seat.

Gloucester Point is home to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), the graduate school in marine science of the College of William & Mary and one of the largest marine research and education centers in the United States.

VIMS was founded in 1940 as the Virginia Fisheries Laboratory in Yorktown and moved across the York River to Gloucester Point in 1950 to make way for the Coleman Bridge, which opened to traffic in 1952.

VIMS is mandated by the Commonwealth of Virginia to research and advise on the York River and Chesapeake Bay resources, including blue crabs, oysters and striped bass, and in 2024 a $100 million gift helped establish its Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences.