Everything about The Intracoastal Waterway totally explained
The
Intracoastal Waterway is a 4,800-km (3,000-mile) recreational and commercial
waterway along the
Atlantic and
Gulf coasts of the
United States. Some lengths consist of natural inlets, salt-water rivers, bays, and sounds; others are man-made canals.
The waterway runs the length of the Eastern Seaboard (Maine to
Miami,
Florida), from its unofficial northern terminus at the
Manasquan River in New Jersey, where it connects with the Atlantic Ocean at the Manasquan Inlet, to
Brownsville,
Texas. The waterway is toll-free, but commercial users pay a
fuel tax that's used to maintain and improve it. The ICW is a significant portion of the
Great loop, a circumnavigation route encircling the Eastern half of the North American continent.
The creation of the Intracoastal Waterway was 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. 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. The waterway is also used when the ocean is too rough to travel on.
Natural bodies of water
The following natural bodies of water are included in the Intracoastal Waterway system:
Canals
Major freight canals
Cape Cod Canal
Chesapeake and Delaware Ship Canal
Other canals
Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal
Dismal Swamp Canal
Cape May Canal
Delaware and Raritan Canal-no longer operational or part of the Intracoastal Waterway
Point Pleasant Canal
?
Waccamaw River in South Carolina
Winyah Bay in South Carolina
Little River Inlet in South CarolinaFurther Information
Get more info on 'Intracoastal Waterway'.
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