Florida's Intracoastal Waterway | ICW

I bet many of my friends and our Lagooner customers have no idea that there is an Intracoastal Waterway along most of the eastern seaboard of the United States.  Before railways, the thoughts of water transport sheltered from the harsh ocean environment occupied the minds of entrepreneurs and travelers alike.

History of the Intracoastal Waterway

The History of the Intracoastal Waterway is long and varied in accounts, but the general knowledge is that the project was in the minds and thoughts of the United States people before the conception of our country. The real work on the waterway became reality in the 1800’s in Florida and earlier in some of the northeastern states. Florida was a territory before it became a state and political wherewithal was not expanded until state status in 1845.

Heavy loads were thought to be more manageable by barge rather than the road, but by the turn of the century, the railroad was becoming the prominent way to carry cargo up and down the east coast. Thoughts of commercial transport on the Intracoastal Waterway were quickly becoming less feasible. Public sentiment for an inland waterway was tremendous and gave way to the Army Corps of Engineers completing most of the dredging and marking of the channel from Maine to Biscayne Bay, Miami.

Today’s Intracoastal Waterway in Brevard County starts in the Mosquito Lagoon and ends at Sebastian Inlet on the Indian River Lagoon. Haulover Canal was dug and dredged to complete much of the inland canal allowing commercial and recreational vessels safe inland passage. Some of our best fishing in Florida lies along the Intracoastal Waterway on the Space Coast.

You can do a lot of reading on your own about the ICW on the internet.  I found loads of search information on google and exciting stories too.  Gina and I have traveled most of the waterway from Jacksonville down to Miami. Parts of the coastline of Florida are beautiful, and others are developed and dirty.