Little Creek-Cape Charles Ferry

Departures from and arrivals to Cape Charles were matched with times of Pennsylvania Railroad passenger trains such as the Del-Mar-Va Express and the Cavalier that operated the length of the Delmarva Peninsula.

[1] Beginning in the 1940s the ferry began accommodating vehicles as well as passengers, with the service then linking the Ocean Highway, a major coastal 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.

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.

On May 1, 1950, the ferry route was changed from Cape Charles to the newly formed artificial Harbor at Kiptopeke Beach.

[5] 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.

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.

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.

[6] In August 1960, the District sold US$200 million toll revenue bonds and the first pile of the CBBT was driven in the seabed on October 1, 1960 and the project was completed on April 15, 1964.

To lessen crossing time the VFC bought land eight and half miles down the Del-Mar-Va peninsula from Cape Charles at Kiptopeke Beach and created a man-made harbor using nine concrete surplus ships from WWII.

In April 1954 the SS PRINCESS ANNE was cut in two and a 90-foot midsection built bringing her length to 350 feet (LOA).

CBFT first order of business was to reestablish a ferry crossing from Old Point Comfort in Hampton VA. (Fort Monroe) to the Del-Mar-Va peninsula.

With the opening of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel (HRBT) on November 1 1957, the Willoughby Spit-Old Point Comfort ferry ceased.

With a second route being established required another vessel and another US Navy LST was converted into RO/RO ferry at Newport News Shipbuilding in 1957.

Due to lack of patronage the Old Point Comfort-Kiptopeke route was terminated in September 1960, one month before the first pile was driven for the CBBT.

Five of the ferries were sold to the Delaware River & Bay Authority to start a new crossing between Lewes, DE & North Cape May, NJ.