Geography
Cecil County is in the northeast corner of Maryland, bounded on the north and east by the Mason-Dixon Line with Pennsylvania and Delaware. The western border is defined by the lower reaches of the Susquehanna River and the northernmost coves, flats and tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. On the south, the county is bounded by the Sassafras River and Kent County, Maryland. The county is part of the Delmarva Peninsula as well as Maryland's "Eastern Shore."
Topographically, Cecil County straddles the border between the rolling hills of the Piedmont Plateau north of Route 40 and the flatlands of the Atlantic Coastal Plain to the south. The highest and most rugged hills are found in the northwestern and north-central parts of the county, reaching 534 feet (163 m) just south of the Mason-Dixon Line near Nottingham, Pennsylvania and just east of U.S. Route 1. The lowest elevation is sea level along the Chesapeake Bay.
Cecil County is primarily rural, with denser development around the county seat of Elkton and along Route 40. The county is bisected from east to west by the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which connects the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay by way of the Elk River. The canal passes through the town of Chesapeake City, where a high-level bridge facilitates the passage of large ships beneath Maryland State Route 213.
Cecil County is also bisected east-to-west by Interstate 95, known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway in Maryland. The highway provides a major artery for traffic between the Baltimore-Washington area to the southwest and the Philadelphia and New York/New Jersey regions to the northeast. For purposes of the 2010 census, the federal government has designated Cecil County as part of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area.
According to the 2000 census, the county has a total area of 417.88 square miles (1,082.3 km2), of which 348.13 square miles (901.7 km2) (or 83.31%) is land and 69.75 square miles (180.7 km2) (or 16.69%) is water.
Read more about this topic: Cecil County, Maryland
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