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Driving The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

There wasn’t much of an option to get from Williamsburg, Virginia to our next campground, other than the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Because we were towing the RV, it cost us $24 to cross. The bridge goes above water, but also dips under the Bay a few times to allow for ship passage.

We were later told that this bridge is considered to be pretty scary by a lot of people. We were fine on the bridge, luckily there wasn’t any wind. We had already gone across the Pontchartrain Causeway, so the lack of seeing land didn’t really bother us. We had also driven over the Talmadge Memorial Bridge in Savannah and the Arthur Ravenel Jr Bridge in Charleston, both of which are tall enough for the cargo ships to pass under (185′ and 186′ clearance below the bridge to the water). The Chesapeake was only 40 to 75 feet of clearance, so the height didn’t really bother us either. (Pontchartrain was 15 feet of clearance.)

Maps view

However, even though the tunnels are neat and make a great design for ships and cars/trucks to keep doing their own thing without stopping traffic, I am not a huge fan of being under the water especially while towing the RV. The tunnels were also a little crazy with seeing how close the tops of the semi-trucks came to the top (some only had about a foot of clearance). Now, a few days later a rain storm came through and there was a wind warning out for the bridge, so I am very glad we were not on it then.

NOTE: These are the discount prices. If you do not have an E-ZPass, it will be $14 each way!

VIDEO: Driving The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

Bridge Stats

Comment (1) on "Driving The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel"

  1. So reminds me of the camp fire song about “going on a lion hunt.” The repeating mantra is, “you can’t go around it, you can’t go under it, you can’t go over it, you have to go THROUGH it.” The life lessons of going through these experiences will never be forgotten and will help to give you confidence to tackle the next life challenge. WOW!!! Thanks again for sharing and enjoy every minute of this awesome adventure…..

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