Cobb Island, MD

Cobb Island is a Charles County CDP where the Potomac and Wicomico rivers meet. The island's name comes with a privateer story: James Neale owned it in 1642 and captured Spanish treasure ships; the cut coins, called cobbs, were passed around Maryland and gave the island its name. A second chapter came in 1900, when Reginald Fessenden made an early successful voice transmission between masts on the island. In the 1920s, roads, a bridge, and a summer resort tied Cobb Island more closely to the mainland. The local shorthand is water on every side, old coins, a wireless experiment, and a bridge doing the practical work.