When it comes to the scariest roadways in America, we tend to think of the windy coastal overhangs of California’s Pacific Coast Highway, or the precarious twists and turns of Appalachia’s Blue Ridge Parkway, but it’s not often that we hear about bridges being particularly frightening.
Sure, the towering Golden Gate and the sky-high Brooklyn Bridge may make some sweat, but it’s none other than the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland that seems to be on the lips of every East Coast road tripper this summer.
Why this bridge scares so many motorists
What makes crossing this bridge such a nail-biting endeavor for some is the fact that it stands at a mind-boggling 200-ft. tall in its highest parts!
Sure, that may not be THAT tall compared to the 900-ft. Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge at the Nevada-Arizona border, but the 4.3-mile journey over open water makes the giant feel much, much taller.
Aside from the height, the bridge has ultra-low barricades that just perfectly measure up to the drivers-side window, giving it the illusion that you are driving high over the water with no safety net to catch you!
On top of that, the bridge comes equipped with few emergency pull-offs, which can lead to deadly situations— like what happened in February of this year.
While traveling on the bridge during a storm, a semi-truck was blown over the side and into the water below, killing the driver. At the time, there were no weather-related restrictions preventing the truck from crossing the bridge.
As a matter of fact, since its opening in 1964, a whopping 10 people have lost their lives by being either swept off by bad weather or pushed off by a nasty accident. Yikes!
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