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.

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

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.