Chesapeake Bay Bridge

As an engineer I always get fascinated by projects in this caliber, I feel excited every time I drive over the bridge .
But the fact that there is no other crossing to bay arwa is ridiculous, there should be multiple crossings, that would cut the travel time to very less that current situation.

I rarely use this bridge, but if I wish to leave the Eastern Shore and go to the main land– more urbanized part of Maryland, it’s a must. This bridge is kind of scary– the guard rails are low and one of the lanes switches directions to aid in the flow of traffic in the afternoons. The good thing is that you only have to pay on the side leaving Annapolis unlike the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel where you pay regardless of direction.

Beautiful view. A little scary at first but I love the view.
I hear that the bridge can be dangerous at times. But it wasn’t bad the times that I went on it.
Beautiful view. Some good and some bad restaurants on the other side of the bridge.

Gorgeous bridge. I had no idea there was a toll before it and we didn’t have cash. They don’t even let you pay online. Instead of paying $ 4 at toll they will send a bill for $ 6. Maybe Illinois spoiled me with their pay online system where you have 7 days to pay a missed toll.
Anyhoooo, it’s a beautiful bridge. I was in awe of the surroundings. I wasn’t driving so I was able to take it all in. It’s absolutely stunning.
Focus on the road, there isn’t a lot of room for mistakes. It can become congested depending on the time of day.
Nothing I can say beyond what was said. Enjoy the view.

Seriously, someone needs to show some leadership and reconstruct this bridge with some safety in mind. The guard rails are meager and the bridge shows major rust and paint peel. Jeesh!

The bridge is beautiful during the day. I prefer being a passenger rather than driving over it. It is a bit tedious with drivers who aren’t always careful. The toll going into the bridge is $ 4. They only take cash. If you don’t have cash, you are sent a $ 6 bill.

If you follow these easy steps; you’ll be fine crossing this bridge. If you ignore my easy steps, don’t say I didn’t try to help you!
* Have cash of $ 7 or your EZPass ready when approaching the toll.
* Do not question the toll attendant about the amount to cross the toll road.
* Go the designated speed limit on the bridge.
* Don’t be an ass hole and try to pass people. Why? People like to take photos and will go slower than what they should because they are using the cell phone to capture the moment instead of focusing on the road. If you fly by, and they’re not already paying attention — you’re only going to make matters worse.
* If you see someone trying to take photos with their phone; honk at them!
* If you want to get photos while crossing the bridge to indicate ‘you were here!’, have your passenger take photos. If you do not have a passenger; savor the moment with your imagination. Don’t risk other’s lives.
* Do not drive too slow. Keep up with traffic without being reckless.
* Pray when crossing the bridge that you won’t wreck and fall into the bay or that the Bay Bridge won’t collapse while driving over it.
When going west bound on the bridge, there is no toll. Only east bound.
Once you cross the bridge — remember the beach isn’t too far out of reach and you’re almost to fun in the sun!

This bridge is a great step back into time for folks who love the good old fashion road trip. This bridge looks every bit like the highway infrastructure we had back in 1970… Even though I wasn’t alive then, I still see a ton of roads today that were, including Bay Bridge!
At over 4 miles and usually traveling in moderate traffic, you’re bound to wonder if you’ll ever see the other side of the coast! My average speed on the bridge is usually 40MPH in fair weather, so you can expect at least 6 – 10 minutes of stunning views of the suspension span and the Chesapeake bay on all sides of you. Don’t try and speed or rush off this bridge; you’re only making it dangerous for yourself and others; plus it’s just not nice. Not to mention that you’d be missing out on some of the most prominent beauty in Maryland!
I’ve heard rumors that the bay bridge toll will be decreasing from $ 5.40 round trip to $ 2.25 round trip staring July 1^st! I think you need an easy tag for that sweet discount. Happy driving!

Not my favorite bridge to cross, but necessary to get to the Eastern shore of MD and VA, from the DC area. Its quite expensive at $ 6 to cross, but the upside is that you only pay it on the eastbound side. E-​Z Pass is a must on this bridge, especially during the summer season, otherwise you could be backed up forever in the horrible traffic. The views from this bridge are incredible, and may help to distract from the scary height, which is worse if you get stuck in traffic at the top and can feel the bridge swaying. I always pray to get over quickly!

Hate going over this bridge, especially in bad weather.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is beautiful and provides an unbelievable scenic view of the Chesapeake Bay. It always serves as a highlight on a trip through the Eastern shore of Maryland as an alternate route (by-​pass) around Baltimore when traveling north or south on Interstate-​95.
The toll road is able to switch the direction of some of its lanes to facilitate heavy traffic flow. This seems to be effective and a lot speedier than the Baltimore route during rush hours, construction backups, and/​or accidents.

A great pair of bridges that are well taken care of and maintained. When You are cruising on down the Chesapeake Bay on the Carnival Pride from Baltimore the bridges look pretty spectacular. From a distance it looks like the decks were built on top of each other but in reality, they are not. On routes 50 and 301 traffic can get pretty backed up during the summer as people are going on over to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Ocean City, Maryland.
but

This bridge means you’ve left the city and are on your way to some fun in the sun.
Yes there will be idiots who can’t read the easy pay verses cash signs and will try to back up and enter your lane without care of major horn honking and slowing down everyone else. Yes, there are many many popo at the beginning and end of bridge hiding out just waiting for a reason to pull you over. Yes you must pay 6 $ to cross and sometimes wait in line for a while.
But who cares about all that. This bridge means that the boardwalk, dolphin watching, thrashers fries with malt vinegar, fractured prune donuts, fishers popcorn and all the other glorious Ocean City spots are fast approaching.
Roll down your windows, breathe in that first sniff of sea air and enjoy the Eastern shore ride to the beach.
Forget about all the lane crashing idiots or those who didn’t realize there was a toll and have to scavenger around in their car looking for 6 $ worth of change making you wait.
Be in a vacation kind of mind and let all that pass. You are almost there.
Stay alert for hidden cop cars and know that once you get over this bridge your vacation is the next stop.

Use your ezpass for quick easy on and off access. While on the bridge enjoy the beautiful water and scenery and pray it doesn’t collapse or anyone gets into an accident

The Bay bridge is so awesome. Every time I cross it. It mean only another four more hour on Greyhound bus to Ocean City Maryland. Really nice had not been in a traffic cents the 90’s. Alway off season and stay away from manager holidays. Don’t even thing about dropping in the water. Looking forward in coming this way. This is my 200 review. The bay bridge a great place to have it and a great way to get to my best place in the world Ocean City, MD.

A bridge is a a bridge, right? Well, unless it’s a really big high long bridge. I lived in the area long enough to know that the ferry was the only way to get to the eastern shore, so this bridge was important otherwise the eastern shore would have been just another country. What is striking about the bridge is that it goes up really high. Really high. Glad they only charge a toll going eastbound otherwise the traffic tie up could be even worst in the summer. It’s really good to be a passenger instead of the driver to appreciate the engineering and the scenes of the Chesapeake Bay.

The bay bridge is actually two bridges. Under many conditions, they run two-​way traffic on the same span (and one-​way traffic in the prevailing direction on the other one), with cars going fifty miles and hour almost directly at each other and no divider between them and no shoulder. It’s amazing there aren’t more accidents, but there have been some bad ones. As impressive a feat of engineering as it is, the bridge needs to be expanded to avoid this scenario (and to accommodate the inevitable population growth and traffic).
It is, however, the only way to get across the bay, and thus an access point to a variety of very nice places that otherwise would be completely isolated.
I never drive on it during peak hours. Off-​peak, it isn’t a bad drive, and you do get some nice views. I never had any issues paying the toll in cash, but if I were going through with any kind of regularity the EZ pass would be essential.

Das ist schon ein Erlebnis der besonderen Art. Kommt man wie ich, von
den Stränden Delawares in die Region Washington/​Baltimore/​Annapolis,
dann muss man irgendwann mal über den nördlichen Teil der Chesapeake
Bay. Und dafür haben sich Architekten und mutige Konstrukteure die
Chesapeake Bay Bridge ausgedacht. Bereits in gebührender Entfernung ist
auf den Schildern nicht etwa Washington oder Baltimore zu lesen, sondern
Bay Bridge. Na denn. Die Spannung kurz vor der Brücke wird noch einmal
gesteigert wenn in Maryland dauernd Schilder stehen, die einen fragen:
Bound to Bridge? then stay on I50. Das verlangt Respekt ab. 1952 wurde der erste Part der Brücke eröffnet und 1973 der zweite Teil, die nun heute East– (gebührenpflichtig, 6 US$) und Westbound (for free) sind.
Und dann
geht es nach einer langen monotonen Geradeausfahrt aufwärts, aber immer
weiter (naja, bis auf 56,7 Meter Höhe, aber das erscheint mir bereits sehr viel). Schiffe, die in der Bay liegen werden immer kleiner, das Wasser
ist nicht mehr in Wellenstrukturen zu erkennen, sondern nur noch als Big
Blue, wobei man da auch vorsichtig sein muss sich das nicht genau
anzuschauen, denn und das ist der Kick der Brücke die Geländer, die
ein Auto auf der Brücke halten sollen wirken nicht gerade stabil, dazu
sind sie auch nicht sichtundurchlässig, sondern lassen erahnen, dass man
sich hier gefühlte paar hundert Meter über dem Wasser befindet. 2008 gab es den Frontalcrash eines Trucks, bei dem der Fahrer leider sein Leben liess aber nicht bekannt ist, ob er durch den Sturz ins Wasser oder den vorherigen Crash zu Tode kam. Furchtbar, doch das ist die Angst der Brückenphobiker, über die man hier mehr erfahren kann:
Es ist
schon etwas heikel, die Fahrt herüber, aber es hat den Kick, wer in der
Gegend ist und das machen kann, der sollte es tun.
Video link:

Blah!
There is nothing good about this bridge other than the fact that it connects the shores of the bay.
It gets brutally congested during the beach season and frankly, the height and length freaks me the heck out!
Still, it’s part of life for mainland-​Marylanders that can’t stay off the Eastern Shore.

This place fucking sucks.
Have you ever wanted to wait in traffic for 2 hours, only to find out that you have to pay a toll that magically doubles every 3 years? Then, once you’re done paying your toll, you get to wait in traffic some more. Oh, the fun.
I have an idea: How about the State of Maryland adds, I don’t know, maybe 10 more toll lanes to cut down on traffic and pollution?
Worst clusterfuck I’ve ever traveled to, excluding Newark International Airport.

Reviewing a Bridge?! Seriously?! Well its not in the same category as the Golden Gate Bridge but the Chesapeake Bay Bridge does provide a swift route to the Maryland Eastern barring an accident or high wind conditions.
As with other reviewers, I bypassed the long lines by flashing my trusty EZ Pass at the toll gate using the far left lane (headed east bound). However, during this particular Saturday, the far left lane was going «AGAINST» the west bound traffic on the opposite bridge. With no solid barrier, I was driving the speed limit (55 mph) against traffic, on the bridge!
After finally crossing the bridge and merging onto the east bound traffic lanes, I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that I survived the CB Bridge while driving against traffic. But in all seriousness, everyone should consider driving the speed limit with a higher state of alertness especially after a woman survived when her car plunged off the bridge after being hit by a tractor-​trailer. In summary, as a Unilocal Public Safety announcement /​review, always drive cautiously on a bridge and if you have a moment, write the NTSB demanding safety reviews for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge be re-​evaluated immediately!
National Transportation Safety Board
490 L’Enfant Plaza, SW
Washington, DC 20 594