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Much of the bay is quite shallow. A person 6'7" (2 mFor other uses of "metre" and "meter", see Metre (disambiguation). The metre is the basic unit of length in the International System of Units (SI: Systeme International d'Unites). It is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in absolute vacu) tall could not only walk across the mouth of the Susquehannah at the upper bay, but could also traverse some 700,000 acreThis article is about the unit of measure known as the acre''. For other definitions, see Acre (disambiguation). An acre is a measure of land area in Imperial units or U. customary units. It is equal to 43 560 square feet, or 4840 square yards. The preciss (2,833 km²) of the bay without being entirely submerged.

The Chesapeake Bay was the site of the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781, during which the French fleet defeated the Royal Navy, allowing the United States to become independent.

The largest rivers flowing into the Bay are:

• Susquehanna River
• Potomac River
• James River
• Appomattox River
• Rappahannock River
• Patuxent River
• Choptank River
• York River formed by:
  • Mattaponi River
  • Pamunkey River

The word Chesepiooc is an Algonquian word meaning "Great Shellfish Bay". The Bay was once known for its great seafood production, especially blue crabs, clams and oysters. The plentiful oyster harvests led to the development of the Skipjack, the State Boat of Maryland, which is the only remaining working boat type in the United States still under sail power. Today, the body of water is less productive than it used to be, because of fertilizer runoff from agricultural development on the Eastern Shore and throughout the watershed, urbanization, particularly on its western shore, overharvesting, and invasion of foreign species. The bay though, still yields more fish and shellfish (about 45,000 tons yearly) than any other estuary in the United States.

In the 1970s, the Chesapeake Bay contained one of the planet's first identified marine dead zones, where hypoxic waters were so depleted in oxygen they were unable to support life, identified when massive fish kill s resulted. Chesapeake Bay's shellfish industry has also suffered from the toxic results of Pfiesteria poisoning in fish and humans, and red tides.

The bay is also known for the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, a dog breed developed in this area.