Sunday Favorites: History of the Intracoastal Waterway

Back in the 1890s, when people were just starting to realize the agricultural potential of the area, it became clear that there was an advantage to transporting popular exports like citrus, vegetables, livestock, lumber and fish to neighboring villages through inland waters, which were sheltered from severe weather and could provide safe passages to shallow-draft vessels unable to go offshore.

Local communities requested the assistance of the federal government and the United States Congress committed $5,000 for the project. In 1895, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began dredging a 100-foot-wide channel, nine feet deep, that ran from southern Tampa Bay to Charlotte Harbor. The Intracoastal Waterway took 72 years to complete, according to document The Historical Development of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway: The Boating Geography of Southwest Florida Before Development.

At the time, the 54-mile stretch from Tampa Bay to Gasparilla Sound included three separate bays that were not connected: Big Sarasota Bay; Little Sarasota Bay and Lemon Bay. These bays were separated by natural barriers, mostly mangroves, and had varying depths and navigability. Settlers were forced to sail around these barriers into open water, which left them vulnerable to choppy seas and unpredictable weather patterns.

The dredging occurred sporadically and began in south Tampa Bay with a series of cut-throughs. The first ”cut,“ joined Tampa Bay and Sarasota Bay in 1895. The following year, Sarasota Bay joined Casey’s Pass. In 1907, another cut through extended to Venice. The plan worked. By 1917, all sorts of goods were being transported safely from Tampa to Charlotte Harbor. Some of the major supplies were brick, canned goods, groceries, cement, corn, fertilizer, grain, ice and lumber. In 1919, Congress approved more funding for a wider channel to accommodate more traffic.

At the time, an experimental vessel was tasked with the dredging project. "Suwannee" was a U.S. steam snag boat, 100 feet in length with a shallow draft and a square bow. With the help of a 10-man-crew, she sucked slurry from the bottom and discharged it along the shore while a derrick lifted rocks and snags from the bottom. A launch, float boat and two rowboats accompanied her during the project.

The project went so well, that in 1939 the Board of Engineer for Rivers and Harbors recommended another intracoastal project reaching from Tarpon Springs to Fort Myers. A 3-foot-deep by 75-foot-wide channel existed from Sarasota to Venice. The Corps of Engineers surveyed Lemon Bay in 1899 but determined insufficient economic justification for dredging the southern inland waterway sector to Gasparilla Sound.

That all changed after WWI. Tune in next week, as we examine the second have of the project’s progress.