Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary in the U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia.

The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna.

The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary in the U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia.

Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, and the Chesapeake Bay State.

The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula with its mouth located between Cape Henry and Cape Charles.

It is bordered by the Chesapeake Bay on the west, the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Elk River and its isthmus on the north.

It is 2.8 mi wide at its narrowest (between Kent County's Plum Point near Newtown and the Harford County shore near Romney Creek) and 30 mi at its widest (just south of the mouth of the Potomac River).

The Potomac River is located within the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands into the Chesapeake Bay.

It is 2.8 mi wide at its narrowest (between Kent County's Plum Point near Newtown and the Harford County shore near Romney Creek) and 30 mi at its widest (just south of the mouth of the Potomac River).

The first European to see the area was John Smith in 1608 when he traveled up the Chesapeake Bay from Jamestown.

Average depth is 21 ft, reaching a maximum of 174 ft. The Bay is spanned twice, in Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Sandy Point (near Annapolis) to Kent Island and in Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel connecting Virginia Beach to Cape Charles.

Spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the state's rural Eastern Shore region with the urban Western Shore.

Average depth is 21 ft, reaching a maximum of 174 ft. The Bay is spanned twice, in Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Sandy Point (near Annapolis) to Kent Island and in Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel connecting Virginia Beach to Cape Charles.

Kent Island is the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay and an historic place in Maryland.

Average depth is 21 ft, reaching a maximum of 174 ft. The Bay is spanned twice, in Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Sandy Point (near Annapolis) to Kent Island and in Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel connecting Virginia Beach to Cape Charles.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel (CBBT) is a 23 mi bridge–tunnel crossing at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the Hampton Roads harbor, and nearby mouths of the James and Elizabeth Rivers in the American state of Virginia.

Average depth is 21 ft, reaching a maximum of 174 ft. The Bay is spanned twice, in Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Sandy Point (near Annapolis) to Kent Island and in Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel connecting Virginia Beach to Cape Charles.

Located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Beach is included in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area.

The Bay is approximately 200 mi long from its northern headwaters in the Susquehanna River to its outlet in the Atlantic Ocean.

The river empties into the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay at Perryville and Havre de Grace, Maryland, providing half of the Bay's freshwater inflow.

More than 150 major rivers and streams flow into the Bay's 64299 sqmi drainage basin, which covers parts of six states (New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia) and all of Washington, D.C.

A ridge about 75 to 80 ft in elevation extends along the western boundary of the state and separates the watersheds that feed Delaware River and Bay to the east and the Chesapeake Bay to the west.

Average depth is 21 ft, reaching a maximum of 174 ft. The Bay is spanned twice, in Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Sandy Point (near Annapolis) to Kent Island and in Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel connecting Virginia Beach to Cape Charles.

Cape Charles, located close to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, on Virginia's Eastern Shore, was founded in 1884 as a planned community by railroad and ferry interests.

The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary in the U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia.

Water depths rarely exceed 30 m. Examples of this type of estuary in the U.S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast.

Parts of the Bay, especially the Calvert County, Maryland, coastline, are lined by cliffs composed of deposits from receding waters millions of years ago.

It occupies the Calvert Peninsula, which is bordered on the east by Chesapeake Bay and on the west by the Patuxent River.

At the point where the Susquehanna River flows into the Bay, the average depth is 30 ft, although this soon diminishes to an average of 10 ft southeast of the city of Havre de Grace, Maryland, to about 35 ft just north of Annapolis.

Havre de Grace, abbreviated HdG, is a city in Harford County, Maryland, situated at the mouth of the Susquehanna River and the head of Chesapeake Bay.

Patapsco River;

The Patapsco River mainstem is a 39 mi river in central Maryland which flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

Patuxent River;

The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland.

These cliffs, generally known as Calvert Cliffs, are famous for their fossils, especially fossilized shark teeth, which are commonly found washed up on the beaches next to the cliffs.

Calvert Cliffs State Park is a public recreation area in Lusby, Calvert County, Maryland, that protects a portion of cliffs that extend for 24 miles along the eastern flank of the Calvert Peninsula on the west side of Chesapeake Bay from Chesapeake Beach southward to Drum Point.

Known for both its beauty and bounty, the Bay has become "emptier", with fewer crabs, oysters and watermen in past years.

The Chesapeake Bay's once-flourishing oyster population historically filtered excess nutrients from the estuary's entire water volume every three to four days.

The mesohaline zone has a medium amount of salt and runs from the Bay Bridge to the mouth of the Rappahannock River.

It traverses the entire northern part of the state, from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the west where it rises, across the Piedmont to the Fall Line, and onward through the coastal plain to flow into the Chesapeake Bay, south of the Potomac River.

Chester River;

The Chester River is a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay on the Delmarva Peninsula.

Choptank River;

The Choptank River is a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay and the largest river on the Delmarva Peninsula.

The Bay's geology, its present form, and its very location were created by a bolide impact event at the end of the Eocene (about 35.5 million years ago), forming the Chesapeake Bay impact crater and the Susquehanna River valley much later.

Continued slumping of sediments over the rubble of the crater has helped shape the Chesapeake Bay.

Nanticoke River;

The Nanticoke River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay on the Delmarva Peninsula.

York River;

It ranges in width from 1 mi at its head to 2.5 mi near its mouth on the west side of Chesapeake Bay.