Four Islands Built From Mountain Granite

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel crosses the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay for 17.6 miles, and the rock islands that anchor its two tunnels are now some of the best structure on the lower Bay. This is how the islands were built, drawn from a Virginia history page and the bridge-tunnel’s own site.

Building the crossing

The Virginia General Assembly authorized the project in 1956, and it opened in 1964, replacing the ferry. Four artificial islands anchor the two tunnels. Granite boulders weighing 2 to 4 tons each came by rail from a quarry in Lunenburg County, were barged out and dropped to form a ring larger than four football fields. The bridges rest on 4,805 concrete pilings.

Why it is remarkable

The islands, pilings and rock piles built for traffic now hold the fish that boat and kayak anglers target around them: cobia, sheepshead, spadefish and red drum.

Connection to the waterway

The same structure is the fishing ground described in the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel guide. The island pier on Island 1 closed to the public in October 2017 for tunnel construction.

The crossing as a fishing ground

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel crosses the mouth of the Bay between Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore. Fish gather on the pilings and rock piles. A 2016 Soundings article describes cobia from late June to late September, and bull redfish in late April and early May, many over 50 pounds. Spadefish, sheepshead and triggerfish are found on the pilings, and black drum at the second and third islands. Anglers also report bluefish, sea bass, striped bass, croaker, speckled trout, Spanish mackerel and flounder.

Tackle in that article includes bucktails baited with squid for redfish around the pilings, large bucktails with paddletails for visible cobia, and live eels on circle hooks with menhaden chum. Sheepshead and spadefish take an unweighted hook or fishfinder rig with clam or squid.

Access

Access is by boat at present. The Sea Gull Fishing Pier off the southernmost island closed to the public in October 2017 when work began on the Thimble Shoal tunnel. The bridge-tunnel’s website says it will reopen after construction with no firm date, so confirm before you plan on it. Launches named in the Soundings article are the Lynnhaven ramp in Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge ramp, about three miles from the crossing. The red drum rule is 18 to 26 inches, three per person.

What anglers can take from it

Fish the structure with the tide and current in mind, and follow the bridge-tunnel’s own rules for boats near the islands and pilings. More stories from Virginia waters are in the Dock Tales index.

Sources and caveats

This tale uses Virginia Places, “Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel,” and the bridge-tunnel’s explore page. The construction facts rest mainly on one secondary source. That source’s tunnel completion estimate is older, and we left it out. A bridge-tunnel history source would strengthen this story.