Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel - Britannica

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External Websites

• Official Site of Chesapeake bay bridge-tunnel
• The Washington Post - 50-year-old Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was an �engineering wonder�
• The New York Times - Over and Under; The Chesapeake Bay Bridge‐Tunnel Will Be Opened This Wednesday
• PBS - The Chesapeake Bay Bridge: Spanning the Bay
• Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond - Spanning the Chesapeake Bay (PDF)

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel bridge, Virginia, United States Ask Anything Also known as: Lucius J. Kellam, Jr. Bridge-Tunnel Written and fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors History Britannica AI Ask Anything Table of Contents Table of Contents Ask Anything

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, complex of trestles, artificial islands, tunnels, and bridges that runs across the entrance to Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, providing a vehicular roadway between the Norfolk–Hampton Roads area (southwest) and Cape Charles at the tip of the Delmarva Peninsula (northeast). It was begun in 1958 and completed in 1964.

The bridge-tunnel complex is 17.6 miles (28 km) long from shore to shore and consists mostly of low trestle bridges carrying a two-lane highway. Because of the importance of shipping in the bay, the crossing was sunk deep beneath the main shipping channels in tunnels at two points, each tunnel being more than 1 mile (1.6 km) long. Four artificial islands, constructed in water averaging 40 feet (12 metres) in depth, provide portals by which the roadway enters the tunnels. Near the north end of the bridge-tunnel complex, flanking Fisherman Island off Cape Charles, two high-clearance bridges provide part of the crossing.

Officially: Lucius J. Kellam, Jr. Bridge-Tunnel (Show more) See all related content

In 1995 construction began on a parallel bridge to accommodate increasing traffic demands; it opened to four-lane traffic on April 19, 1999. In 2017 the Parallel Thimble Shoal Tunnel Project broke ground on a new two-lane tunnel under Thimble Shoal Channel, connecting two of the artificial islands in parallel to the existing tunnel. Scheduled for completion in 2024, the new tunnel will carry two lanes of traffic southbound, and the existing tunnel will be used to carry two lanes of traffic northbound.

Britannica Quiz Bridge Quiz The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.