Introduction
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT) is almost 37 km long connecting the Delmarva Peninsula with southeastern Virginia in the United States. It crosses the mouth of Chesapeake Bay and connects the city of Virginia Beach to Cape Charles in Northampton County.
As the name applies “bridge-tunnel” we can clearly understand that it uses an amalgamation of both bridges and tunnels over two widely separated shipping channels, using four man-made islands built in the bay as portals. The Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnel carries U.S. Highway 13, the main north-south highway on Virginia's Eastern Shore, and provides the only direct link between Virginia's Eastern Shore and South Hampton Roads regions. (Hanes and Morgan, 1973)
It has been reported that the construction of this huge project initiated in October 1960 and the most important fact was that no government local or national tax was used in order to aid the construction of the project. Hence the construction of Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was financed by toll revenue bonds and then after the construction and all the other work was completed CBBT was opened for the transports on April 15, 1964. (Virginian-Pilot, 2004)
The official name of this bridge-tunnel is Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge-Tunnel after one of the civic leaders who had long worked for its development and operation. However, it continues to be best known as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. In 1995, at a cost of almost US$200 million, work began to increase the capacity of the above-water portion on trestles and bridges to four lanes. An even more costly proposition, the two-lane tunnels were not upgraded at that time.
Ferry System to Fixed Crossing
Virginia Ferry Corporation a privately owned public service company between the time periods of 1930s to 1954 managed scheduled vehicular like car, bus, truck and passenger ferry service between the Virginia Eastern Shore and the Hampton Roads areas...........
