Gallery
Aerial view of the Kent Narrows
Kent Narrows as seen from Kent Island
The R. Clayton Mitchell Jr. Bridge (rear) and the Waterman's Memorial Bridge (front) at Kent Narrows
The Kent Narrows, also known as Kent Island Narrows and to local residents simply as the Narrows, is a waterway that connects the Chester River with the Eastern Bay and also separates Kent Island from the Delmarva Peninsula. It runs through the community of Kent Narrows, Maryland. The Kent Narrows was originally shallow and surrounded by marsh. A causeway was built across it in 1826, but was removed in 1876 when the channel was dredged. [1] Today the Kent Narrows continues to be dredged regularly. The area has traditionally been a location for seafood packing and restaurants.
Several bridges, both part of roads and the Queen Anne's Railroad, have crossed the Kent Narrows in the past. Currently, two road bridges cross the Kent Narrows.
Kent County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, its population was 19,198, making it the least populous county in Maryland. Its county seat is Chestertown. The county was named for the county of Kent in England. The county is part of the Mid-Eastern Shore region of the state, and the oldest county in Maryland.
Queen Anne's County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 49,874. Its county seat and most populous municipality is Centreville. The census-designated place of Stevensville is the county's most populous place with a population of 7,442 as of 2020. The county is named for Queen Anne of Great Britain, who reigned when the county was established in 1706 during the colonial period. The county is part of the Mid-Eastern Shore region of the state.
U.S. Route 76 is an east–west U.S. highway in the Southeastern United States that travels for 548 miles (882 km). Its western terminus is at US 41 and the eastern terminus of US 72 in the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where it travels in a generally due east direction, to its eastern terminus at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. It travels through the cities of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Ringgold, Georgia, Columbia and Florence, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina.
U.S. Route 301 (US 301) is a spur of U.S. Route 1 running through the South Atlantic states. It runs 1,099 miles (1,769 km) from Biddles Corner, Delaware, at Delaware Route 1 to Sarasota, Florida, at U.S. Route 41. It passes through the states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It goes through the cities of Middletown, Delaware; Annapolis, Maryland; Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia; Rocky Mount, Wilson, and Fayetteville, North Carolina; Florence, South Carolina; Statesboro and Jesup, Georgia; and Jacksonville, Ocala, Zephyrhills, and Sarasota, Florida.
The Gov. William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge is a major dual-span bridge in the U.S. state of Maryland. Spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the state's rural Eastern Shore region with its urban and suburban Western Shore, running between Stevensville and Sandy Point State Park near the capital city of Annapolis. The original span, opened in 1952 and with a length of 4 miles (6.4 km), was the world's longest continuous over-water steel structure. The parallel span was added in 1973. The bridge is named for William Preston Lane Jr., who as the 52nd Governor of Maryland launched its construction in the late 1940s after decades of political indecision and public controversy.
Kent Island is the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay and a historic place in Maryland. To the east, a narrow channel known as the Kent Narrows barely separates the island from the Delmarva Peninsula, and on the other side, the island is separated from Sandy Point, an area near Annapolis, by roughly four miles (6.4 km) of water. At only four miles wide, the main waterway of the bay is at its narrowest at this point and is spanned here by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The Chester River runs to the north of the island and empties into the Chesapeake Bay at Kent Island's Love Point. To the south of the island lies Eastern Bay. The United States Census Bureau reports that the island has 31.62 square miles (81.90 km2) of land area.
Maryland Route 18 (MD 18) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway runs 20.37 miles (32.78 km) from the beginning of state maintenance at Love Point east to MD 213 in Centreville. MD 18 is the main east–west local highway on Kent Island and east to Centreville, serving the centers of Stevensville, Chester, Kent Narrows, Grasonville, and Queenstown that are bypassed by U.S. Route 50 (US 50)/US 301. What is signed as MD 18 is actually a set of four suffixed highways: MD 18A, MD 18B, MD 18S, and MD 18C. There are also several unsigned segments of MD 18 scattered along the length of the signed portions.
Maryland Route 8 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as Romancoke Road, the state highway runs 8.37 miles (13.47 km) from Romancoke Pier in Romancoke north to MD 18 in Stevensville. MD 8 is the main north–south highway of Kent Island in western Queen Anne's County. The state highway is also the first highway encountered on U.S. Route 50 /US 301 east of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. South of Matapeake, MD 8 is paralleled by the Kent Island South Trail.
Maryland Route 213 (MD 213) is a 68.25-mile (109.84 km) state highway located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the United States. The route runs from MD 662 in Wye Mills, Queen Anne's County, north to the Pennsylvania border near Fair Hill in Cecil County, where the road continues into that state as Pennsylvania Route 841 (PA 841). The route, which is a two-lane undivided highway most of its length, passes through mainly rural areas as well as the towns of Centreville, Chestertown, Galena, Cecilton, Chesapeake City, and Elkton. MD 213 intersects many routes including U.S. Route 50 (US 50) near Wye Mills, US 301 near Centreville, and US 40 in Elkton. It crosses over the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal in Chesapeake City on the Chesapeake City Bridge. MD 213 is designated by the state as the Chesapeake Country Scenic Byway between the southern terminus and Chesapeake City with the portion north of MD 18 in Centreville a National Scenic Byway. In addition, the route is also considered part of the Atlantic to Appalachians Scenic Byway between Chesapeake City and MD 273 in Fair Hill.
Maryland Route 3, part of the Robert Crain Highway, is the designation given to the former alignment of U.S. Route 301 from Bowie, Maryland, United States, to Baltimore. It is named for Robert Crain of Baltimore. It is unique in Maryland in that it has a business route and a truck route which do not connect to their parent; however, the business route is also a part of the Robert Crain Highway. MD 3's current orientation is vestigial from the construction of Maryland's freeway system.
The skipjack is a traditional fishing boat used on the Chesapeake Bay for oyster dredging. It is a sailboat which succeeded the bugeye as the chief oystering boat on the bay, and it remains in service due to laws restricting the use of powerboats in the Maryland state oyster fishery.
U.S. Route 50 is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching just over 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from West Sacramento, California, east to Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic Ocean. In the U.S. state of Maryland, US 50 exists in two sections. The longer of these serves as a major route connecting Washington, D.C., with Ocean City; the latter is the eastern terminus of the highway. The other section passes through the southern end of Garrett County for less than 10 miles (16 km) as part of the Northwestern Turnpike, entering West Virginia at both ends. One notable section of US 50 is the dual-span Chesapeake Bay Bridge across the Chesapeake Bay, which links the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area with the Eastern Shore region, allowing motorists to reach Ocean City and the Delaware Beaches.
The South River is a 10-mile-long (16 km) tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in Anne Arundel County, Maryland in the United States. It lies south of the Severn River, east of the Patuxent River, and north of the West River and Rhode River, and drains to the Chesapeake Bay.
U.S. Route 301 (US 301) in the state of Maryland is a major highway that runs 122.85 miles (197.71 km) from the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River into Virginia northeast to Delaware. It passes through three of Maryland's four main regions: Southern Maryland, the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area, and the Eastern Shore. US 301 serves mainly as a bypass of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. from Virginia to Delaware.
The Severn River Bridge, officially known as the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, is a bridge that crosses the Severn River northwest of the city limits of Annapolis, Maryland. The bridge serves as part of the John Hanson Highway, which is signed as U.S. Route 50 and U.S. Route 301. Maryland Route 2 also traverses the bridge, but no MD 2 signs exist along the section of highway the route traverses. MD 2 separates from US 50/301 east of the bridge and becomes Governor Ritchie Highway, and to the west of the bridge it leaves the highway along Solomons Island Road. The bridge serves as the main connection between Annapolis and points east, including the Eastern Shore via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge; however, unlike the rest of US 50/301 in the area, the bridge lacks shoulders and is often a point of traffic congestion and numerous accidents.
Maryland Route 290 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway runs 17.20 miles (27.68 km) from MD 300 at Dudley Corners north to MD 299 near Sassafras. MD 290 roughly parallels U.S. Route 301, which it intersects twice, as it connects the communities of Crumpton in northern Queen Anne's County and Chesterville and Galena in eastern Kent County. The portion of the route in Queen Anne's County was constructed as MD 301 in the early to mid-1920s. In Kent County, a portion south of Galena was built in the late 1910s and extended south to the Chester River in the late 1920s. MD 290 assumed the course of MD 301 in 1940 to avoid a number conflict with US 301. The Galena–Sassafras section of the highway was built in the late 1940s. MD 290 was reconstructed in Queen Anne's County and from south of Galena to Sassafras in the mid- to late 1950s. The highway's interchanges with US 301 were built when the U.S. Highway's course was constructed in the mid-1950s.
Maryland Route 291 (MD 291) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway runs 18.34 miles (29.52 km) from MD 20 in Chestertown east to the Delaware state line east of Millington, where the highway continues east as Delaware Route 6 (DE 6). MD 291 parallels the Chester River along the southern edge of Kent County and connects Chestertown with U.S. Route 301 (US 301). The highway follows much of what was originally MD 447, which was constructed between US 213 in Chestertown and MD 290 at Chesterville around 1930. MD 291 itself was built east of Millington around 1930. The highway was extended west toward Chesterville in the early 1930s, but it was not complete to MD 290 until the late 1940s. MD 291 was extended west to US 213 along a partially new alignment in the early 1960s, superseding MD 447. MD 291 was reconstructed along its entire length between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s, and it reached its present western terminus at MD 20 in 1969.
The Cross Island Trail is a rail trail in Queen Anne's County, Maryland occupying a section of the abandoned Queen Anne's Railroad corridor that traverses the width of Kent Island. It was completed in 2001 and is part of the American Discovery Trail.
Matapeake is an unincorporated community located south of Stevensville on Kent Island, Maryland, United States.
R. Clayton 'Clay' Mitchell Jr. was an American politician and the Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates in the United States.
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