The Intracoastal Waterway

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a 3,000-mile (4,800-km) recreational and commercial waterway along the Atlantic and gulf coasts of the United States. Some lengths are comprised of natural inlets, salt-water rivers, bays and sounds; others are man-made canals. (Pictured is the Hobucken Bridge which crosses the ICW in Pamlico County.)

The ICW 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 uers pay a fuel tax that is used to maintain and improve it. The ICW is a significant portion of the Great Loop, a circumnavigational route encicling the eastern half of the North American continent.

The creation of the ICW 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 feet (4m) 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 feet (2.1m) and 9 feet (2.7m) minimum depths.

The waterway consists of two non-contiguous segments: the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (pictured here), 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, foodstuff, 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 for travel.

NATURAL BODIES OF WATER

• Albemarle Sound
• Barnegat Bay
• Biscayne Bay
• Buzzards Bay
• Cape Cod Bay
• Casco Bay
• Chesapeake Bay
• Delaware Bay
• East River
• Gulf of Maine
• Halifax River
• Indian River Lagoon
• Long Island Sound
• Pamlico Sound

CANALS

• Chesapeake and Delaware Ship Canal
• Cape Cod Bay
• Dismal Swamp Canal
• Delaware and Raritan Canal (no longer operational or part of the ICW)
• Point Pleasant Canal
• Waccamaw River in South Carolina
• Winyay Bay in South Carolina
• Little River Inlet in South Carolina