Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay, large inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, eastern Maryland and eastern Virginia. It is about 320 km (200 mi) long and varies in width between 6 and 64 km (4 and 40 mi). The mouth, a passage between Cape Charles, Virginia, on the north, and Cape Henry, Virginia, on the south, is about 19 km (12 mi) wide. The bay is indented by many estuaries and streams, including the James, York, Rappahannock, Potomac, Patuxent, and Susquehanna rivers. The head of the bay is linked to the Delaware River by the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, a 31-km (19-mi) long waterway providing access to the Wilmington-Philadelphia port area. The 28-km (17.5-mi) Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, completed in 1964, crosses over and under the entrance to the bay between Cape Henry and Cape Charles. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, built in the early 1950s, crosses the bay from Sandy Point, Maryland, near Annapolis, eastwards to Kent Island, Maryland. Important ports on the bay, which is navigable by deep-water vessels throughout its length, are Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth in Virginia, and Baltimore in Maryland. The bay is an important source of oysters, crabs, and other seafood.