Saco Bay (Maine)

Saco Bay (Maine)

Saco Bay is a small arcuate embayment of the Gulf of Maine on the Atlantic coast of Maine in the United States. The name derives "from a map of the coastline made in 1525 by the Spanish explorer Esteban Gómez. He named the bay Bahio de Saco (Bay of the Sack)."

Saco Bay is approximately 10 mi (16 km) wide, running from the Fletcher Neck (the Biddeford Pool peninsula) and the mouth of the Saco River in York County north to the Scarborough River and Prouts Neck in Scarborough, Cumberland County, Maine, approximately 13 mi (19 km) southwest of Portland. The shoreline of the bay makes the largest sand beach and salt marsh system in Maine and contains the longest unbroken stretch of beach in the state.