NORFOLK, Va. (AP)- The boring machine that will help expand the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel has been named Chessie.
Chessie is a fabled sea monster in the bay. Its legend is more than 80 years old with reported "sightings" of the snakelike creature picking up in the 1980s.
The name Chessie was chosen from an online contest and submitted by Grace Bentley of Nandua Middle School in Onley on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
The bridge-tunnel spans the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and connects Virginia's Hampton Roads region with the Eastern Shore. The machine will start digging a mile-long hole under the bay next year.
Such machines often have female names. The tradition that began when miners prayed to the patron saint of mines, Barbara, to protect them.