taylorpoetwarriorTheresa and I published our first YouTube video 10 months ago. Since then we’ve had a chance to see which videos are the most popular among viewers, and it’s been interesting to see which ones get the more airplay. Today, we’re featuring Brunswick, Georgia with a whopping 547 views.
First, we’d like to say we really enjoyed visiting Brunswick. We learned about this small town from a waitress at a restaurant we ate at along Interstate 95. We were playing around between Northern Florida and South Carolina when we saw a billboard for a Mexican restaurant called Tortuga Jacks. We stopped for lunch and got into a conversation with the waitress about where we were heading. That led to us discussing our YouTube channel and how we like visiting small towns with rich histories. She recommended Brunswick.
One of the cool things about Brunswick is its location. Its situated just north of Jekyll Island, across East River. It’s also about 60 miles east of Waycross, Georgia, which happens to be another one of our most popular vidoes.
An interesting tidbit about Jekyll Island. In 1910, several prominent financiers met in private on the island to discuss monetary policy and drafted plans for the creation of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Three years later, the Federal Reserve Act gave the Fed its life. Today, Jekyll Island is a hot tourist destination with its own historic district.
Back to Brunswick … it was settled in 1738 by British colonists. Officially incorporated in 1856, it was named in honor of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the northwestern part of Germany.
A Short Tour of Brunswick, Georgia History
Brunswick is a very important U.S. port. In fact, the Port of Brunswick is third in terms of volume of roll-on/roll-off trade with 10 percent of all U.S. roll-on/roll-off trade. It’s also home to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and has been instrumental throughout various parts of U.S. history. Some of the historically significant events that have taken place in Brunswick include:
- Many of the town’s residents left Brunswick during the Revolutionary War because they were loyal to the British crown
- Congress recognized Brunswick as an official port of entry in 1789
- The first public building was erected in Brunswick in 1819
- In 1857, a controversy over land in an area called the Commons led to gunfire and the death of a prominent personality
- The town of Brunswick was evacuated during the Civil War
- Brunswick benefited economically from the union’s Reconstruction efforts
- In 1893, the yellow fever impacted Brunswick negatively leading to a decade of hardship
- A huge hurricane devastated Brunswick in 1893
- During World War II, Brunswick became a strategic military location and housed the largest Naval blimp base in the world
- Brunswick was also home to the factory that built 99 Liberty Ships to support the war effort, employing 16,000 workers
We invite you to join us as we walk through Brunswick, Georgia. See for yourself why this video is one of our most popular.