<P> As of May 2018 the Chesapeake Bay Bridge--Tunnel has been crossed by more than 130 million vehicles . The CBBT complex carries U.S. Route 13, the main north--south highway on Virginia's Eastern Shore on the Delmarva peninsula, and, as part of the East Coast's longstanding Ocean Highway, provides the only straight direct link along the East Coast and Atlantic Ocean, between the Eastern Shore and South Hampton Roads regions, as well as an alternate route to link the Northeast U.S.A. and points in between with Norfolk and further south to the Carolinas and Florida . The Bridge--Tunnel saves motorists 95 miles (153 km) and ​ 1 ⁄ hours on a trip between Virginia Beach / Norfolk and points north and east of the Chesapeake and Delaware Valley, River and Bay without going through the traffic congestion in the Baltimore--Washington Metropolitan Area further west in Maryland . The $15 toll is partially offset by some savings of highway tolls in Maryland and Delaware and avoiding often heavy traffic on north - south Interstate 95 (I - 95) built in the 1960s and completed in the late 1970s and parallel older United States Route 1 (US - 1) from the 1920s . From 1995 to 1999, at an additional cost of almost $200 million dollars, the capacity of the above - water portion of bridges on the facility was increased and widened to four lanes . An upgrade of the two - lane tunnels was proposed in following years but has not yet been carried out . </P> <P> The crossing was officially named the Lucius J. Kellam Jr . Bridge--Tunnel in August 1987, 23 years after opening, honoring one of the civic leaders who had long worked for its development, construction and operation; it continues however to be best known as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge--Tunnel . The complex was built by and is operated by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District, a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia governed by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission and in cooperation with the state Department of Transportation . Costs are recovered through toll collections . In 2002, a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) study commissioned by the Virginia General Assembly concluded that "given the inability of the state to fund future capital requirements of the CBBT, the District and Commission should be retained to operate and maintain the Bridge--Tunnel as a toll facility in perpetuity ." </P> <P> Occasionally because of similar names, the Bridge - Tunnel is often confused with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (also known as the Governor William Preston Lane, Jr . Memorial Bridge) further north in Maryland crossing the middle portion of the Bay from Annapolis to Kent Island on the Maryland Eastern Shore of Delmarva . It was built with two lanes and a higher suspension segment in the middle from 1949 - 1952, with a second parallel wider span of three lanes in 1973 . It is one of the longest and highest bridges in the world . </P> <P> In December 1606, the Virginia Company of London sent an expedition to North America to establish a settlement in the Colony of Virginia . After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from England, they reached the New World at the southern edge of the mouth of what is now known as the Chesapeake Bay . They named the two flanking Virginia points of land / capes like gateposts at the entrance to the long extensive estuary after the sons of their king, James I, the southern Cape Henry, for the eldest and presumed heir, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the northern Cape Charles, for his younger brother, Charles, Duke of York (the future King Charles I). A few weeks later they established their first permanent settlement on the southern, mainland, side of the Bay, several miles upstream along the newly named James River at Jamestown on the northern shore on a close - in island for protection, the first permanent settlement in English North America . </P>

Why is part of the chesapeake bay bridge underwater
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