Albemarle Sound

Albemarle Sound with the northern Outer Banks. Orbital photo courtesy of NASA.

Albemarle Sound is a large estuary on the coast of North Carolina in the United States located at the confluence of a group of rivers, including the Chowan and Roanoke. It is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Outer Banks, a long barrier peninsula upon which the town of Kitty Hawk is located, at the eastern edge of the sound. Roanoke Island is situated at the southeastern corner of the sound, where it connects to Pamlico Sound.

Some small portions of the Albemarle have been given their own "sound" names to distinguish these bodies of water from other parts of the large estuary. The Croatan Sound, for instance, lies between mainland Dare County and Roanoke Island. The eastern shore of the island to the Outer Banks is commonly referred to as the the Roanoke Sound. The long stretch of water from near the Virginia state line south to around the Currituck County southern boundary is known as the Currituck Sound.

The sound forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Its coast saw the first permanent English settlements in what became North Carolina, the Albemarle Settlements. Many inland tidewater communities along the Albemarle today are part of the Inner Banks region of the state.

Norfolk Southern Railroad passenger train crosses the Albemarle Sound trestle in 1918