Escambia Bay is a bay located in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, in the far western

Florida Panhandle The Florida panhandle (also known as West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida. It is a Salient (geography), salient roughly long, bordered by Alabama on the west and north, Georgia (U.S. state ...

. The city of Pensacola is located on the western side, and the town of Milton is located on the northeastern end of the two-pronged bay. Both places are the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

s of the respective

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

. Unusually, Escambia Bay is connected to open waters via Pensacola Bay to its southeast. It is fed primarily by the Escambia River. National Airlines Flight 193, a

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...

, crashed into Escambia Bay during a descent into Pensacola Regional Airport on May 8, 1978. There were 3 fatalities among the 58 people on board. During Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, the storm surge from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

came into Escambia Bay, washing out the Interstate 10 Escambia Bay Bridge.

References

Bays of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico Bodies of water of Escambia County, Florida Bodies of water of Santa Rosa County, Florida {{SantaRosaCountyFL-geo-stub