Not to be mistaken with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near my home in Maryland; the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is located in the State of Virginia and connects Virginia's eastern shore (Cape Charles) to mainland Virginia (Cape Henry) and the Virginia Beach area. As a kid that grew up on the eastern shore of Maryland (Delmarva Peninsula) - whenever we would travel south the Virginia or the beaches of North and South Carolina - we would always travel US Route 13 south and cross over this engineering marvel. My parents and grandparents always did this to avoid big city traffic of Washington DC! It's funny how I can vividly recall getting up and leaving home at 3 a.m. to travel to the beach. The CBBT is about 3 hours south of where I grew up. We had to leave at 3 a.m. so my grandfather could stop and have his 6 a.m. sit down breakfast at the restaurant (still there today) located at the fishing pier on one of the tunnel "islands". Amazing and cool memories. To this day whenever my family travels south from where we live - we go slightly out of our way and cross this bridge-tunnel to get to the North Carolina beaches. It's a bit of extra time well spent for me rather than sit in interstate traffic along 95 & 64 from Washington DC to Williamsburg, VA. So even thought this is not a natural structure I want to share some history and facts about this bridge-tunnel. It's really a cool experience to cross and anyone traveling north/south from the Philadelphia area down towards Norfolk, VA and beyond should make this crossing at least once.
Crossing this is really interesting. In summer if the weather is hazy; you can be over water and not see land on either side! From toll booth to toll booth the distance is about 23 miles. Crossing from the eastern side you first go through Fisherman's Island which is a preserved area and is beautiful. The CBBT is located where the Chesapeake Bay opens into the Atlantic Ocean. Once you get over Fisherman's Island you go onto the bridge itself. There are actually 2 bridges (1 southbound, 1 northbound) that are 2 lanes so it's just like a highway over water but very sporadic emergency pull offs! Originally there was a single bridge (opened in 1964) but in the mid 1990's a 2nd was built to avoid 2 way traffic. There are still only the 2 original tunnels so 2 way traffic still exists in both as each bridge dumps you into the original tunnels. The eastern most tunnel is where the Chesapeake Channel is located. This channel handles ships heading well north up the Chesapeake to Baltimore, Maryland. The western tunnel is where the Thimble Shoals Channel is located which leads to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. It is not uncommon to see Navy ships or even submarines passing through here as a major US Navy base is located in Norfolk, VA. You are very likely to see commercial ships moored nearby awaiting loading/unloading in the ports in the Hampton Roads area. In addition (especially on weekends) you'll see numerous private recreational fishing boats - especially near the man made islands (4) at the entrance/exit to each of the 2 tunnels.
Prior to the construction of the facility in the early 1960's - ferry was the only means of crossing. It was a significant trip and often times there were delays and cancellations due to poor conditions resulting from high winds and weather. My parents and grandparents recall using the ferries to cross. I'm too young for that :) When high winds (40+ mph) are in the area wind restrictions are put in place for high profile vehicles prohibiting them from crossing. We saw this on our recent trip as a pretty big nor'easter was off the mid Atlantic coast and the winds were howling. I posted a video on my YouTube channel I shot when we stopped at the fishing pier/restaurant close to the western Virginia shore. And you can see by the pictures here that the Chesapeake was really rough that day! The aerial photo and the photo taken from on the bridge are not my photos (I put them here to give perspective hopefully). However the 2 taken at the man made tunnel island are my own. I can remember several crossings during bad thunderstorms where it seemed like the bay was washing right up onto the bridge! And meeting a semi-truck (18 wheeler) in one of the tunnels can be a bit nerve wracking if you've never experienced that before. There are actually people afraid to even make the crossing and will go out of their way to avoid it! Sadly these will be the last pictures I can take there for a while. A new tunnel will be added to the Thimble Shoals Channel to allow 2 lanes in both directions. Construction should begin this fall (2017). The restaurant will not be replaced. The fishing pier will re open but not until 2022! So a little piece of the history will be going away with this new construction. The positive is that the only remaining 2 way traffic will be in the Chesapeake Channel tunnel which will make things safer for travelers.
Oh and 1 quick last thing. The ferry terminal on the eastern shore side was obviously abandoned once the bridge-tunnel opened in 1964. The property there has been made into a State Park in Virginia (Kiptopeke State Park). That park is on my "list" of places and at least by next summer I am going to stop there and get some good shots of the Chesapeake. It's a beautiful park from what I can see. As always thank you for reading my posts. I enjoy so much being able to share what I consider to be really cool stuff with you all.
