Escambia Bay is a bay located in Escambia and

Santa Rosa Santa Rosa is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish name for Saint Rose. Santa Rosa may also refer to: Places Argentina *Santa Rosa, Mendoza, a city * Santa Rosa, Tinogasta, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, Valle Viejo, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, La Pampa * S ...

counties, in the far western Florida Panhandle. The city of

Pensacola Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...

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 civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

s of the respective

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

. Unusually, Escambia Bay is connected to open waters via

Pensacola Bay Pensacola Bay is a bay located in the northwestern part of Florida, United States, known as the Florida Panhandle. The bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, is located in Escambia County and Santa Rosa County, adjacent to the city of Pensacola ...

to its southeast. It is fed primarily by the

Escambia River The Conecuh River and Escambia River constitute a single river in Alabama and Florida in the United States. The Conecuh River rises near Union Springs in the state and flows in a general southwesterly direction into Florida near Century. The r ...

National Airlines Flight 193 National Airlines Flight 193, registration N4744, ''Donna'', was a Boeing 727-235 en route from Miami, Florida to Pensacola on May 8, 1978. It was scheduled with stops at Melbourne, Florida; Tampa; New Orleans, Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama. T ...

, a

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...

, crashed into Escambia Bay during a descent into

Pensacola Regional Airport Pensacola International Airport , formerly Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport and Pensacola Regional Airport (Hagler Field), is a public use airport northeast of the central business district of Pensacola, in Escambia County, Florida, Unit ...

on May 8, 1978. There were 3 fatalities among the 58 people on board. During

Hurricane Ivan Hurricane Ivan was a large, long-lived, Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States. The cyclone was the ninth named storm, the sixth hurricane and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atlant ...

in September 2004, the storm surge from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

came into Escambia Bay, washing out the Interstate 10

Escambia Bay Bridge The Escambia Bay Bridge is a six-lane freeway bridge that carries Interstate 10 (I-10) across Escambia Bay near Pensacola, Florida. History The original four-lane bridge opened in 1968. It consisted of twin spans of two lanes each with ...

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