From Marsh to Working Waterway

From Marsh to Working Waterway. . , The land where you are standing was once a marsh. The straits of the Kent Narrows were once shallow enough that the Maryland colonists called the area "The Wading Place.", After the last ice age, global warming caused sea level to rise worldwide. The melting icecaps resulted in the flooding of the ancient Susquehanna Valley and the birth of the Chesapeake Bay. It is an ongoing process that continues today. Geologists estimate that sea level is rising about about a foot every century., The Kent Narrows is also changing. As the bounty of the bay began to be commercially harvested, the Narrows was increasingly used by commercial fishermen. The Narrows channel was dredged in 1950 to allow larger boats through. The dredge spoil was used to fill in the surrounding marshlands. The restaurants and processing houses you see around you stand on this reclaimed land. Today the waterway is largely man made, with continued dredging and shoreline bulkheading to maintain a wide, deep waterway for work and pleasure boats.