is the Chesapeake. Comparing the ratio of the Bay's shoreline to its length with almost any similar coastal body of water, the Bay's ratio is nearly 35:1, as opposed to the others with a ratio of two to four times their greatest length or width.
The Chesapeake Bay, whose waters are bounded on the north by Maryland and on the south by Virginia, is the largest inlet in the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the eastern United States. Its historical background has a charm all its own: "Chesapeake Bay, 'Queen of the Estuaries' was formed 10,000 years ago when glaciers melted in the Susquehanna River valley . . . [and] contains roughly 18 trillion gallons of water, teeming with blue crabs, oysters and finfish. It also serves a s a palatial bird sanctuary."2 The Bay is 193 miles long and ranges from three to 25 miles wide, and divides a finger of land known as the Delmarva Peninsula. The Bay, whose 12 mile wide mouth is at the southern end, flanked by Cape Charles and Cape Henry, is fed by 23 tributaries. They are a mixed blessing: "The rivers are not so much the branches as the roots; they reach far up into the land for water and nutrients. It is the rivers that made the bay so rich, and it is the rivers that are now killing it."3 The eastern shore of the Bay is irregular, marshy, flat and wooded, cut by countless creeks, guts, necks and inlets. The western shore has a straighter shoreline and higher ground with bluffs and cliffs.
The Chesapeake Bay, in comparison to Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay, Delaware Bay, and most of the world's great bays, gulfs, estuaries, and inland seas, owes its charms and problems to a number of factors: its waters twine extensively with dozens of rivers and thousands of creeks, its moderate depth; its minimal tides; its kindly seas; its hazard-free bottoms; its abundant seafood; and its proximity to the nation's capital, which has contributed to the population growth in the Bay area, and its increased use.
T...