Cross Florida Barge Canal

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One of the two completed sections of the Barge Canal, looking east from the SR 19 bridge south of Palatka.

A map of the Cross Florida Barge Canal as planned and built.

The Cross Florida Barge Canal was a canal project to connect the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean across Florida for barge traffic. Two sections were built but the project was cancelled, mainly for environmental reasons. It is now a protected green belt corridor, one mile (1.6 km) wide in most places, known as the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway.

1 Route
2 Bridges
3 History
4 External links

The planned route of the canal followed the St. Johns River from the Atlantic coast to Palatka, the valley of the Ocklawaha River to the coastal divide, and the Withlacoochee River to the Gulf of Mexico. About 28% of the 107-mile (172 km) project was built—the cross-country section from the St. Johns River to the Oklawaha River, part of the route along the Oklawaha, and a small section at the Gulf of Mexico end up to the dammed Lake Rousseau.

All the bridges over the St. Johns River north of the canal are high enough for ships, or have movable sections. High bridges were built over the canal, as well as several over the Ocklawaha River where it was not widened to the canal. The following major roads, railroads, and locks and dams cross the path of the canal:

Buckman Lock (formerly St. Johns Lock)
SR 19 (high bridge)
Rodman Dam (south of the canal on the Ocklawaha River, forming Ocklawaha Lake along the canal)
Eureka Dam (unfinished)
CR 316 (high bridge)
SR 40 (high bridge)
CR 314 (no bridge)
SR 35 (no bridge)
SR 464 (no bridge)
Florida Northern Railroad (no bridge)
CSX S-Line (no bridge)
US 27/U.S. Route 301/US 441 (SR 25/SR 500) (no bridge, but several unused supports in the median)
CR 475 (no bridge)
I-75 (SR 93) (no bridge; recently built land bridge over I-75 for trail users)
SW 49th Avenue (no bridge; recently built underpass for trail users)
CR 484 (no bridge)
SR 200 (no bridge)
CSX line (low bridge)
US 41 (SR 45) (low bridge)
Inglis Lock (Inglis Dam is south of the canal on the Withlacoochee River, forming Lake Rousseau along the canal)
US 19 / US 98 (SR 55) (high bridge)

The idea of such a canal was first proposed by Philip II of Spain in 1567. It was repeatedly considered over the years but found to be economically unviable. Secretary of War John Calhoun once again proposed a canal in 1818 in order to solve the losses due to shipwrecks and piracy. The Florida Railroad, finished on March 1, 1861, served a similar purpose, connecting the Atlantic Ocean at Fernandina to the Gulf of Mexico at Cedar Key.

In the 1930s, regional politicians lobbied the federal government to fund canal construction as an economic recovery program, and president Franklin D. Roosevelt allocated emergency funds in 1935. Local opponents of the canal protested that the canal would deplete Florida's aquifers, and work was stopped a year later.

Work was reauthorized in 1942 as a national defense project, with dams and locks to protect the underground water supply. Support for the project from Washington was sporadic, and funds were never allocated to USACE to actually start construction.

Planning was once again given the go-ahead in 1963 with support from president John F. Kennedy, who allocated one million dollars to the project. The next year Lyndon Johnson set off the explosives that started construction. Opponents subsequently campaigned against the canal on environmental grounds, and the project stopped again in January 1971. It was officially cancelled in 1991. The right-of-way was turned over to the state and became the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway, named in honor of the woman who led opposition to the canal.