Chesapeake Bay, MD

Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers 64,299 square miles in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. More than 150 rivers and streams drain into the Bay. Chesapeake Bay is approximately 200 miles long, from the Susquehanna River in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the south. At its narrowest point between Kent County's Plum Point (near Newtown) and the Harford County shore near Romney Creek, the Bay is 2.8 miles wide; at its widest point, just south of the mouth of the Potomac River, it is 30 miles (50 km) wide. Average depth of the bay is 46 feet and the maximum depth is 208 feet.