Williamsburg Regional Library

At its opening in 1964, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was named one of the "Five Wonders of the Modern World" by Reader's Digest magazine. It was the culmination of a concerted, decade-long push by a group of men, led by Lucius J. Kellam Jr., an Eastern Shore native and businessman who dreamed of opening up the remote Eastern Shore to the bustling Virginia mainland. This $200-million, 17.6-mile-long series of bridges, tunnels, islands, and trestle in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay—long dismissed as impractical and even impossible—won the attention of the world at its opening. It also brought an abrupt end to the ferry service that was long a cornerstone of the New York-to-Florida "Ocean Highway," shuttling millions of cars between the Eastern Shore and Hampton Roads.

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Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel