Brigadier General Quincy Adams Gillmore, Second Florida chief of the Army Corps of Engineers. Gillmore graduated first in his class at West Point. He conducted several surveys of the Florida east coast during his command (1869-1884). In later years, Gillmore published several textbooks, including one on underwater concrete, a necessity in waterway and canal improvements. [...]
Month: January 2014
Double-tracking Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway, ca. 1928
The completion and operation of the Flagler railway and other railways throughout Florida spelled the death knell for the Florida East Coast Canal and other inland waterways. At first, it was thought that inland waterways would serve as 'rate-regulators', competitors against a monopolistic railway system. As the railway system became more reliable and economical, many [...]
Bucket dredge in the Matanzas and Halifax rivers Cut, ca. 1893
Bucket dredge in the Matanzas -Halifax rivers Cut south of St. Augustine ca. 1893. Large steel buckets attached to a continuous heavy chain scooped up sand, clay, and rocks, and then dumped the material on either side of the Cut via conveyor belts. Among the earliest of the dredges employed, the bucket dredge soon fell [...]
Overlooking Calibogue Sound (ICW) From Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
For some time, there has been much debate over where the northern terminus of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) might be located. When I appeared as the "waterway expert" on the Modern Marvels documentary "Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway" shown on the History Channel, the writer/producer contended as many still do, that the AIW begins in Miami and [...]
Florida’s Big Dig 