To most of the world Dover is best known as the place of the
White Cliffs of Dover, about which the song
(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover was written. To Englanders Dover has been a seaside resort and a defence against invasion for centuries. Located on the busiest shipping lane in the world, Dover has been a major seaport equally as long. Being the closest land in the UK to the European mainland, Dover has been the landing spot of choice for those travelling between the two for as long as people have been crossing the English Channel.
The opening of the nearby Channel Tunnel, aka the
Chunnel in 1994 has been somewhat of an economic boon, with as many as 20 million persons crossing under the channel annually. It has, however, negatively impacted ferry services which were previously the major means of crossing between France and the UK.
While Dover, United Kingdom, has been inhabited since the Stone Age, Dover Delaware, founded in 1683, has grown much faster than its namesake, with a present population of around 37,000, compare to 31,000 for the original Dover. Given that Dover is the capitol city of the state of Delaware, its major employer is the state government, with the vast majority of the state's bureaucracy being located in and around Dover. Though it is the capitol, it is only the second largest city in the state, the city of Wilmington laying claim to that title. Besides state and county governments, the major employers in the city are
Dover Air Force Base,
Kraft Foods and
Procter & Gamble, the latter two having manufacturing facilities in Dover.
Both Dover, United Kingdom and Dover Delaware are in Kent county.
Depending on one's paradigm it could be either disconcerting or comforting to relocate 3,000 miles across the sea to land in the same town in the same county.