Florida’s Big Dig
The story of the Intracoastal and other thoughts on water, waterways, land, and ecology
Category: Waterway History
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Commodore Brook rescues President-elect Warren G. Harding on New River Sound in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (1921)
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The Canadians are coming! The Canadians are coming! In the late 1880s, four Canadians, including Sir Sandford Fleming’s son, Sandford H. Fleming, traveled to the State of Florida to enter into a subcontract with the Florida canal company to perform a portion of the work in the Matanzas-Halifax River Cut joining St. Augustine and today’s…
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Chief engineer of the Canadian and Pacific Railway, Sir Sandford Fleming was also the designer of Canada’s first adhesive postage stamps. In 1892 Fleming and his son, Sandford H. Fleming, as well as several other Canadians became interested in the inland waterway being dredged along the east coast of Florida. In a matter of time,…
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This rare map was found in the Trent University archives, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. It shows the state lands reserved for granting to the Florida canal company in yellow and the lands of its affiliated land company, the Boston & Florida Atlantic Coast Land Company, in blue. Each square block represents a “section” or one square…
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This sunset view was taken from Skull Creek at Hilton Head Island over the Calibogue Sound. The Sound is a section of the federally controlled Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The Waterway extends some 1,400 miles from Miami, Florida, to Norfolk, Virginia. Of all the barrier islands protecting the Atlantic coast, the longest is Long Island, New…
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This sunset view was taken from Skull Creek at Hilton Head Island over the Calibogue Sound. The Sound is a section of the federally controlled Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The Waterway extends some 1,400 miles from Miami, Florida, to Norfolk, Virginia. Of all the barrier islands protecting the Atlantic coast, the longest is Long Island, New…
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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.…