Sinepuxent Bay is an
inland waterway which connects
Chincoteague Bay to
Isle of Wight Bay, and is connected to the
Atlantic Ocean via the
Ocean City Inlet. It separates
Sinepuxent Neck, in
Worcester County, Maryland from
Assateague Island, and
West Ocean City, Maryland from downtown
Ocean City. Islands in the Sinepuxent Bay include Horn Island and Skimmer Island. It is crossed by the
Harry W. Kelley Memorial Bridge on
U.S. Route 50 and the
Verrazano Bridge on
Maryland Route 611 (not to be confused with the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in
New York City; both were named for
Giovanni da Verrazzano, who explored the coastline in 1524). The bay is the location of the islands that compose the
Sinepuxent Bay Wildlife Management Area.
Sinepuxent Inlet, a navigable waterway through the
barrier island during the colonial era, was located just south of the
Assateague Island National Seashore day-use area, but was closed in a
hurricane in 1818.
Sinepuxent was a once-thriving community on the mainland about a half mile north of the
Verrazano Bridge, also destroyed in the same hurricane.