The northern isthmus of the peninsula is transected by the sea-level Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, so the peninsula could be considered to be an island. Several bridges cross the canal, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel join the peninsula to mainland Maryland and Virginia, respectively. Another point of access is Lewes, Delaware, reachable by ferry from Cape May, New Jersey.
Dover, Delaware's capital city, is the peninsula's largest city by population but the main commercial area is Salisbury, Maryland, near its center. Including all offshore islands (the largest of which is Kent Island in Maryland), the total land area south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is 5,454 sq mi (14,127 km²). At the 2000 census the total population was 681,030, giving an average population density of 124.86 persons/sq mi (48.2 persons/km²).
Roughly south of Wilmington, Delaware, is the fall line, a geographic borderland where the Piedmont region transitions into the coastal plain, a flat and sandy area with very few or no hills.
The border between Maryland and Delaware consists of the east-west Transpeninsular Line and the perpendicular north-south portion of the Mason-Dixon line extending up to the Twelve-Mile Circle, which forms Delaware's border with Pennsylvania. The border between Maryland and Virginia on the peninsula is a surveyed line from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pocomoke River, and then it follows the river to the Chesapeake Bay.
All three counties in Delaware—New Castle, Kent, and Sussex—are located on the peninsula (though upper New Castle county only in part). Of the 23 counties in Maryland, nine are on the Eastern Shore: Kent, Queen Anne's, Talbot, Caroline, Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset, and Worcester, as well as a portion of Cecil County. Two Virginia counties are on the peninsula: Accomack and Northampton.
The following is a list of some of the notable cities and towns in the peninsular region.
At its southern tip the Delmarva Peninsula is connected back to Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads Virginia via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel . The bridge tunnel, is owned and administered by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel currently has a $12.00 (US) toll for single private vehicles ($5.00 for return within 24 hours) and is patrolled by the Virginia State Police.
At various times in its history, residents of the peninsula have proposed that its Maryland and Virginia portions secede from their respective states, merging with Delaware to create a new state named Delmarva.
However, shortly thereafter Delaware came under British control in 1664. James I of England had granted Virginia 400 miles of Atlantic coast centered on Cape Comfort, extending west to the Pacific Ocean to a company of colonists in a series of charters from 1606 to 1611. This included a piece of the peninsula. The land was transferred from the Duke of York to William Penn in 1682 and was governed with Pennsylvania. The exact border was determined by the Chancery Court in 1735. In 1776, the counties of Kent, New Castle, and Sussex declared their independence from Pennsylvania and entered the United States as the State of Delaware.
In the 1632 Charter of Maryland, King Charles I of England granted "all that Part of the Peninsula, or Chersonese, lying in the Parts of America, between the Ocean on the East and the Bay of Chesapeake on the West, divided from the Residue thereof by a Right Line drawn from the Promontory, or Head-Land, called Watkin's Point, situate upon the Bay aforesaid, near the river Wigloo, on the West, unto the main Ocean on the East; and between that Boundary on the South, unto that Part of the Bay of Delaware on the North, which lieth under the Fortieth Degree of North Latitude from the Equinoctial, where New England is terminated" to Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore as the colony of Maryland. This would have included all of present-day Delaware; however, a clause in the charter granted only that part of the peninsula that had not already been colonized by Europeans by 1632. Over a century later, it was decided in the case of Penn v. Lord Baltimore that because the Dutch had colonized Zwaanendael in 1631, that portion of Maryland's charter granting Delaware to Maryland was void.
The Eastern Shore is also known for its poultry farms, the most well-known of which is Perdue Farms, founded in Salisbury, Maryland. The Delaware is a rare breed of chicken created on the peninsula.
Tourism is a major contributor to the peninsula's economy with the beaches at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Ocean City, Maryland being popular tourist destinations.
A favorite sight on the Atlantic side of the peninsula is Chincoteague Island in Virginia, which (together with Assateague Island in Virginia and Maryland) is noted for its herd of feral ponies accustomed to the seashore, as described by Marguerite Henry in ''Misty of Chincoteague''.
Category:Regions of the United States Category:Peninsulas of Delaware Category:Peninsulas of Virginia Category:Peninsulas of Maryland Category:Peninsulas of the United States Category:Landforms of Kent County, Delaware Category:Landforms of New Castle County, Delaware Category:Landforms of Sussex County, Delaware
br:Ledenez Delmarva ca:Península Delmarva de:Delmarva-Halbinsel es:Península Delmarva fr:Péninsule de Delmarva it:Delmarva la:Paeninsula Delmarva nl:Delmarva-schiereiland ja:デルマーバ半島 pl:Delmarva pt:Península de Delmarva ru:Делмарва simple:Delmarva Peninsula fi:Delmarvan niemimaa sv:Delmarvahalvön zh:德玛瓦半岛This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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