Intracoastal Waterway
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Cleanup-date Image:Icw1216.png The Intracoastal Waterway is a 4,800 km (3,000 mile) long recreational and commercial waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. Some lengths are natural and others are man made. One of the older portions is the Dismal Swamp Canal in the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina. The waterway is toll-free, but commercial users pay a fuel tax that is used to maintain and improve it.
The creation of the Intracoastal Waterway was first authorized by the United States Congress in 1919. It is maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Federal law provides for the waterway to be maintained at a minimum depth of 12 ft (4 m) for most of its length, but inadequate funding has prevented that from happening. Consequently, shoaling or shallow water are problems along several sections of the waterway; some parts have 7-ft (2.1-m) and 9-ft (2.7-m) minimum depths.
The waterway consists of two non-contiguous segments: the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, extending from Brownsville, Texas to Carrabelle, Florida, and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, extending from Key West, Florida to Boston, Massachusetts. The two segments were originally intended to be connected via the Cross-Florida Barge Canal across northern Florida, but this was never completed due to environmental concerns.
The Intracoastal Waterway has a good deal of commercial activity; barges haul petroleum, petroleum products, foodstuffs, building materials, and manufactured goods. It is also used extensively by recreational boaters. On the east coast, some of the traffic in fall and spring is by snowbirds who regularly move south in winter and north in summer.
Contents |
Waterways used for and bridges over the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway
Florida
- Florida Bay
- Baker Cut (manmade)
- Buttonwood Sound
- Grouper Creek
- Tarpon Basin
- Dusenberg Creek
- Blackwater Sound
- Jewfish Creek
- Barnes Sound
- Little Card Sound
- Card Sound
- Biscayne Bay
- Biscayne Creek
- Dumfoundling Bay
- manmade canal
- Stranahan River
- New River
- New River Sound
- Middle River
- manmade canal
- Hillsboro River
- SR 810 (Hillsboro Blvd.)
- manmade canal (Hillsboro Canal branches off it)
- Lake Boca RatonImage:Pompano.jpg
- manmade canal?
- Lake Wyman
- Lake Rogers
- manmade canal
- Linton Boulevard
- SR 806
- Northeast 8th Street
- Southeast 15th Avenue
- SR 804
- Lake Worth
- Ocean Avenue
- SR 802
- Southern Boulevard Bridge (US 98 (SR 80/SR 700))
- Royal Palm Bridge (SR 704)
- Flagler Memorial Bridge (SR A1A)
- Riviera Beach Bridge (SR A1A)
- Lake Worth Creek
- Loxahatchee River
- Jupiter Sound
Image:HobeSoundFlorida-sunset.jpg
- Hobe Sound
- Jupiter Narrows
- Peck Lake
- manmade canal
- Great Pocket
- Indian River (Florida)
- SR A1A
- Frank A. Wacha Bridge (SR 732)
- South Causeway Bridge (SR A1A)
- North Causeway Bridge (SR A1A)
- 17th Street Causeway (SR 656)
- Merrill P. Barber Bridge (SR 60)
- Wabasso Causeway (CR 510)
- Ernest Kouwen-Hoven Bridge (Melbourne Causeway) (US 192 (SR 500))
- Eau Gallie Bridge (Eau Gallie Causeway) (SR 518)
- Pineda Bridge (Pineda Causeway) (SR 404)
- Hubert H. Humphrey Bridge (Merritt Island Causeway) (SR 520)
- Emory L. Bennett Causeway (SR 528)
- NASA Parkway West (SR 405)
- A. Maxwell Brewer Memorial Causeway (CR 402)
- U.S. Government Railroad
- Haulover Canal (manmade)
- Former SR 3
- Mosquito Lagoon
- Indian River North
- Ponce de Leon Cut (manmade)
- Halifax River
- Halifax Creek
- Smith Creek
- manmade canal
- Fox Cut (manmade)
- manmade canal
- Matanzas River
- Tolomato River
- manmade canal
- Tolomato River
- manmade canal
- Pablo Creek
- Sisters Creek
- Gunnison Cut (manmade)
- Sawpit Creek
- manmade canal
- South Amelia River
- manmade canal
- Kingsley Creek
- Amelia River
- Cumberland Sound Florida/Georgia state line