This view of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge can be terrifying. For $40 in cash or $50 with a card, the Kent Island Express drives people across the four-mile stretch. Requests for the service have been up since the collapse of Baltimore’s Key Bridge in March. Michelle Morgan has been waiting at a weigh station on U.S. Route 50-E in Annapolis, as instructed. She just passed the “Last Exit Before Toll,” sign, and there’s no turning back.
Morgan, 39, is telling Okes about the final time — about five years ago — that she drove herself over solo. Eskew and Okes are back at the weigh station. Ride No. 16 is here: someone who has been dreading this drive. Even with the Kent Island Express. The hairstylist from Mount Airy, Md., said she’s terrified of heights. Even her mom was unable to drive over this bridge on family vacations to Ocean City.