Virginia's 18C colonial capital has been painstakingly re-created on this 173-acre town site that includes 88 original shops, houses, and public buildings and hundreds of reconstructed colonial structures on their original sites. The restoration project, begun in the late 1920s, continues to this day. Today Colonial Williamsburg brings history to life with the help of well-versed costumed guides and strolling character interpreters who depict 18C citizens of Williamsburg going about their daily routines.