Greater Wilmington and the Cape Fear region from Topsail Island in the north to Sunset Beach and Calabash in the south are geographically, socially, culturally, economically and historically tied to the water. While the ocean gets top billing in terms of geographical attraction, it was the existence of a relatively narrow river that gave rise to successful European settlement. The Cape Fear River, a deep, often fast-moving body of water begins as a trickle near Greensboro, North Carolina, meanders through Fayetteville and empties into the Atlantic Ocean 30 miles south of downtown Wilmington.