The Chesapeake Bay
You drive across it on the way to the beach, but have you ever really thought about this amazing natural resource?
Illustration and text by Patterson Clark
Drag sliders across images to see the changes.
A few fun facts about the Chesapeake Bay
- Estuaries (where rivers meet oceans) are some of the most productive habitats. The Chesapeake is North America's largest estuary and the world's third-largest.
- On average, the bay is about 21 feet deep, but a deep channel runs through the middle — the trace of a prehistoric Susquehanna River.
- Native Americans called the bay "Tschiswapeki," or "great shellfish bay."
- Half a billion pounds of seafood are harvested from the bay every year.
- 150 rivers from six states and Washington, D.C., drain into the bay.
- The bay is 200 miles long and, at its widest, 30 miles across.
- 17 million people live within the area drained by the bay.
- The bay holds 15 trillion gallons of water.
