Newport News is a shipbuilding town, and the best things to do reflect that. The Mariners' Museum is one of the great maritime museums of the world, the Virginia Living Museum is unusually good for a small-city science centre, and the river parks make for an easy afternoon. There are also several Civil War sites and a strong African-American history thread through the old downtown and East End — Newport News was a major arrival point for newly freed people heading north after the Civil War.