List of Chesapeake Bay rivers

This list of Chesapeake Bay rivers includes the main rivers draining into the Chesapeake Bay estuarine complex on the mid-Atlantic eastern coast of the United States, North America. The three largest rivers in order of both discharge and watershed area are the Susquehanna River, the Potomac River, and the James River.[1][2] Other major rivers include the Rappahannock River, the Appomattox River (which flows into the lower James River), the York River (a combination of the Pamunkey and Mattaponi tributary rivers), the Patuxent River, and the Choptank River.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed

The entire Chesapeake Bay watershed includes portions of six states (New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware) and the District of Columbia. The watershed of the entire Chesapeake Bay covers 165,760 km² (approximately 64,000 mi² or 41 million acres [3][4]). With an estuary water body area of only 11,600 km² (4,479 mi²),[5] the land-to-water ratio is about 14:1.[6] Therefore, the rivers flowing into the Chesapeake Bay have a large influence on water quality in the estuary. The rivers flowing into the Chesapeake Bay act as sources of nutrients and sediments from land, which affect the health of the downstream estuary.[7][8] The larger rivers cross the Atlantic seaboard fall line. Over time, many large cities emerged where these rivers cross the fall line as watermills allowed for the production of material goods. Colonial-era logging, farming, and later construction of mill dams have altered streams and trapped mud in much of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.[9][10]