Little Creek-Cape Charles Ferry

The Little Creek-Cape Charles Ferry was a passenger ferry service operating across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay from the 1930s until 1964. Known also as the Princess Anne-Kiptopeke Beach Ferry or Little Creek-Kiptopeke Beach Ferry, the service connected Virginia Beach, Virginia (then Princess Anne County) with Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Beginning in the 1940s the ferry began accommodating vehicles as well as passengers, with the service then linking the Ocean Highway, a prominent coastal motor route.

The service was acquired by an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1954, ceased operations in April, 1964, and was replaced by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. During its peak, the Little Creek Ferry operated 90 one-way trips each day with seven vessels.

The southern terminus of the ferry service in Virginia Beach (originally Princess Anne County) remains accessible today, where it continues to bisect Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek. The original northern terminus in Cape Charles also remains accessible, and these two terminals continue to serve railway barges that ferry rail cars — belonging to Bay Coast Railroad, formerly the Eastern Shore Railroad — across the mouth of the Bay.

In 1949, the northern terminus for ferry service was moved from Cape Charles to Kiptopeke where a new pier was completed in 1951 — shortening the 85 minute crossing^[1] by 20 minutes.^[2] That now defunct terminus with remnants of the original toll both lie within Kiptopeke State Park, where a sign from the defunct Touring Motor Lodge remains near the former toll booth.

• Southern Terminus
• Northern Terminus (original, Cape Charles)
• Northern Terminus (later location, Kiptopke)

Chesapeake Bay Ferry District

The ferry service was operated initially by the Virginia Ferry Corporation, a Virginia public service company. The Pennsylvania Railroad also had offered steamer passenger ferry service on the lower Chesapeake Bay between the Eastern Shore and Old Point Comfort (near Hampton) on the Virginia Peninsula, among other points. The railroad announced it would discontinue service in 1953.

Largely in response to that, in 1954, by act of the Virginia General Assembly, the Chesapeake Bay Ferry District and a related oversight commission were created, initially with the hopes of restoring that service. However, the governmental agency was soon authorized to sell toll revenue bonds, acquire the still-operating private Little Creek Ferry and improve existing ferry service. However, the cross-bay service to Old Point Comfort was never restored.

Another automobile-ferry service from Old Point Comfort across Hampton Roads to Willoughby Spit was replaced in 1957 by the new Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, which followed the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bridge-Tunnel (1952), and was the second bridge-tunnel in Virginia. This stimulated interest in the feasibility of a similar crossing at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

A portion of the bond revenue used to purchase the Virginia Ferry Corporation was set aside to study and determine the feasibility of a fixed crossing of the lower bay. It was determined that a bridge-tunnel complex was feasible,

In 1958, the district hired its first executive director, J. Clyde Morris, a long-time governmental manager in Warwick County and the City of Newport News. Soon, steps to consider routing and implementation were underway. Consideration was given to service between the Eastern Shore and both the Peninsula and South Hampton Roads. Eventually, the shortest route, extending between the Eastern Shore and a point in Princess Anne County at Chesapeake Beach (east of Little Creek, west of Lynnhaven Inlet), was selected. An option to also provide a fixed crossing link to Hampton and the Peninsula was not pursued.^[3]

In August 1960, the District sold US$200 million toll revenue bonds and work began the following month to build the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which opened in early 1964. Princess Anne County had consolidated with the City of Virginia Beach less than a year earlier. Ferry riders were able to view the construction for 3½ years prior to its opening.

Operations

The ferry service took 85 minutes during clear weather.^[1]

The SS Delmarva, SS Princess Anne operated out of Cape Charles to Little Creek from about 1933 to 1941. The SS Pocahontas augmented service through 1950, with other ferries following later.

The flagship of the seven-ship fleet, the 367-ft. SS Pocahontas — which reportedly carried a cask containing earth from the grave in England of the legendary Native American Princess Pocahontas — carried 1,200 passengers and 120 vehicles. The six other ferries carried from 68 to 120 cars and up to 1,200 passengers.^[1] Service ran hourly until 1 a.m.^[1]

The Commonwealth of Virginia reused the name "Pocahontas" for the newest of the current ferryboats at the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry on the James River

Several of the ferryboats from the defunct Little Creek-Cape Charles service were used to begin the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, which inaugurated service on July 1, 1964 and carried traffic from U.S. Highway 9 across the 17-mile mouth of the Delaware Bay between Cape May, New Jersey and Lewes, Delaware.^[4]

See: Model hull studies for the ferry boats Pocahontas and Princess Anne

External links

• Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel
• Jamestown-Scotland Ferry website
• Cape May-Lewes Ferry website
• Cheseapeake Bay Ferries website

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Crossing the Chesapeake: A Modern Marvel". Construction Equipment Guide, Pete Sigmund. http://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/Crossing-the-Chesapeake-A-Modern-Marvel/7665/. 
2. ^ "Cape Charles to Little Creek". Baygateways.net. http://www.baygateways.net/images/exhibits/CACH-2.pdf. 
3. ^ http://www.roadstothefuture.com/CBBT.html#Ferry
4. ^ http://www.cmlf.com/History