When you look at a map, most of the maps that will be in the tourist guides, you’re going to see the peninsula of Charleston, and anything on the peninsula is what locals call downtown. Now the peninsula, it’s surrounded by the two rivers, the Ashley River to the west and the Cooper River to the east. Both of those rivers are named after the same person, Lord Anthony Ashley, Cooper, Earl of Shaftsbury oolala.

He never set foot here and got two rivers named after himself. He’s one of eight gentlemen who had helped King Charles the second gain the throne. And in 1663, those eight gentlemen were given a land grant. They were given what we call Carolana. That’s Carolana, not Carolina. That’s Latin for Charles. Basically, they were given everything south of Virginia and everything west to the Pacific Ocean, including a little tip of northern Mexico, and that gift to them, That land grant, had some stribgs attached to it.

We’ll make our way down towards the waterfront and then up back towards the market area, where you’ll be able to, if you’d like, you can get off in the market to shop and dine and enjoy some of those areas. And then catch the free shuttle, which is the dash downtown area shuttle. It runs about every 20 to 30 minutes until about nine o’clock at night, and it would bring you right back here to the end of the Visitor Center building, This is a great way to enjoy other parts of the city and not have to move your car and find parking. That can be quite the challenge.