I've been crossing it ever since I was a toddler back in the early 1980s, when we'd go south to the Outerbanks in Summertime, where my Uncle Charles and Aunt Maryann have their beach house in Nags Head.
Crossing the Bridge-Tunnel is a rite of passage, really. Everyone should experience it! The whole stretch of it is nearly 20 miles.
When you're on it, all you can see is water, no matter which direction you look. I snapped a picture of how the GPS looked while we were on it. Everything that surrounded us on the screen was blue! :)
In my opinion, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was best enjoyed prior to 1999, when the second bridge hadn't been built yet. Oncoming traffic was directly beside you, making the whole experience just as unnerving as it was delightful, which together made for quite a thrill.
You dip down under the water every so often, in order to let huge ships pass over top. So, you pop your ears when you descend into the tunnel and then again as you come to the top. Toward the end, the bridge lifts very high into the air, far enough above the water so that massive ships can go underneath it. What a view!
But my favorite part is stopping midway at the restaurant and gift shop, which sits on a little man-made island in the middle of the water. There's plenty of parking space and a large fishing pier. The place had just been renovated, so Michael and I enjoyed a delicious lunch, overlooking the Atlantic!
