The Chesapeake Bay Bridge
During last year nearly 23.9-million vehicles crossed the Bay Bridge… The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is a 23 km long bridge and consists mostly of low trestle bridges carrying a two-lane highway. It provides a vehicular roadway between the eastern and western shores of Chesapeake Bay, USA.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is a complex of trestles, tunnels, and bridges. It is over two separated shipping channels using 4 man-made islands, constructed in water averaging 12 m in depth, as portals by which the roadway enters the tunnels (each tunnel being more than a mile long). The bridge complex was opened to traffic on April 15th 1964. The bridges are among the world’s longest continuous over-water steel structure.
The main span has a horizontal navigational clearance of 1,500 feet, and a vertical navigational clearance of 186 feet, and the main shipping channel passes under the main span, utilized by oceangoing ships to and from the Port of Baltimore. Every year the Maryland Transportation sponsors the annual Chesapeake Bay Bridge Walk. This usually brings more than 40,000 participants to walk the bridge and enjoy the view.
