TripHip - Travel Tips and Advice for Traveling on a Budget

I like driving over bridges....long bridges, as for example the Mackinac Bridge, which connects Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas. That is the world's longest suspension bridge.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is a 23-mile long "fixed link" that connects the Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware/Maryland/Virginia) with southeastern Virginia.

It crosses the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and connects the city of Virginia Beach to Cape Charles in Northampton County.

The official name of the bridge is the Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge Tunnel.

The Sea Gull Pier REstaurant and Gift Shop is open year round with seasonal hours. From mid-Sept to mif May, its 7 am to 6 pm, from mid-may through mid-September its 6 am to 10 pm.

Sea Gull Pieris open year round, 24 hours a day, with rest rooms, fish cleaning stations and a certified weighing station.

This Bridge-Tunnel has created a large open-water habitat where migratory birds make their rest stop along the Atlantic Flyway. If you're a birder, you'll want to stop at the Scenic Overlook at the north end of the bridge.

In addition, located just north of the Bridge-Tunnel toll plaza, on Virginia's Eastern Shore, is a National Wildlife Refuge Center.

What is Delmarva, you may be asking yourself. It's a peninsula that runs along the Chesapeake Bay. The state of Maryland owns the upper half (divided between it and the state of Delaware, and the lower half, which has Chincoteague Island, belongs to Virginia. (Assateague Island, the actual home of the Chincoteague Ponies, belongs to Maryland.)