Florida’s Big Dig

The story of the Intracoastal and other thoughts on water, waterways, land, and ecology

Month: December 2014

  • Originally posted on Libations, Victuals and Other Writing: ? I spent a most enjoyable week in this bicycle-mad city where the canals may be one of the main attractions but when walking you have to keep your eyes sharply peeled for cyclists of all ages in some kind of a bloody hurry. ? The Van…

  • In the heart of Miami Beach along a one-mile stretch of Indian Creek Waterway from February 12 through 16, 2015, more than 500 yachts and super yachts worth more than a billion dollars are expected for the 2015 Yacht & Brokerage Show. The show is free to the public. This boat show is unique among…

  • http://www.greatloop.org/mod/ophoto/index.php?photoid=629. The link above leads you to the website for the extremely popular America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association. The Association is composed of a group of boaters fanatical about cruising America’s east coast, “including the Atlantic and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, the Great Lakes, the Canadian Heritage Canals, and the inland rivers of America’s heartland.” Eva…

  • In 1927, Congress authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take possession of the Florida East Coast Canal on the condition that the State of Florida provide a “local sponsor” to acquire and turn over to the federal government at the State’s sole expense the the entire private canal owned by Harry Kelsey, then…

  • Rare footage recorded on Thomas Edison Moving Picture paper film in May 1898 at Tampa, Florida. This film records African-American troops walking down a steep plank as they disembark a troop steamer in May 1898 returning from fighting in Cuba during the short-lived Spanish American War. The plank was especially steep because the disembarkation occurred…

  • A double-bascule drawbridge closed down on a mega-yacht cruising down the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, causing extensive damage to the flybridge. Slated for the Miami Boat Show, the vessel sustained so much damage it is unlikely the yacht will appear for the show, which annually draws thousands to the international event.

  • Built during the latter part of the First Canal Era, this canal completed the link between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan, running 96 miles from the Chicago River to the Illinois River. The link opened up the Midwest’s agriculture, and later its industry, to the Atlantic Ocean via the Great Lakes. At first, towpaths…

  • Five-minute video of a tour boat transiting through one of the oldest lift locks in the world. Built in 1904, the lock works efficiently using the weight of the water itself to raise and lower boats traveling through Peterborough, about an hour’s drive from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The narrator on the boat guides you the…