Pensacola Bay

Pensacola Bay is a bay and inlet of the Gulf of Mexico in the Florida Panhandle. It lies in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties next to the city of Pensacola, and it is about 13 miles long and 2.5 miles wide. The Fairpoint Peninsula and the barrier island of Santa Rosa form and shelter the bay. Escambia Bay and East Bay border it to the north and Santa Rosa Sound to the east, and Pensacola Pass connects it to the Gulf. The Pensacola Bay Bridge crosses the bay between Pensacola and Gulf Breeze, and part of the bay runs along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The wider Pensacola Bay estuarine system covers 144 square miles of open water and is the fourth largest estuarine system in Florida. Its watershed covers about 6,800 square miles of northwest Florida and southern Alabama, with roughly 60 percent of it in Alabama, and drains the Escambia, Blackwater and Yellow rivers.

The City of Pensacola Parks and Recreation Department runs public boat ramps on the bay. One is the 17th Avenue ramp at the railroad trestle at the base of the Chappie James Bridge, which leads directly into Pensacola Bay. Another is at Sanders Beach, which Visit Pensacola lists as a kayak launch. Other public launches include Bruce Beach Natural Area in Pensacola, Woodland Park and Wayside Park West in Gulf Breeze, and the Santa Rosa County ramp at Garcon Point near Milton.

After the War of 1812, the federal government fortified the bay. It began the Navy Yard at Warrington in 1828 and completed Fort Pickens in 1834 and Fort McRee in 1839.