Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway

Extensive system of canals and natural bodies of water on the eastern seaboard of the USA, which runs for a distance of 3,100 km/1,900 mi from Boston, Massachusetts, to Key West, Florida. The toll-free waterway provides sheltered passage for commercial and pleasure craft, and was widely used by shipping in World War II to avoid the danger of submarine attack on the open seas. Major ports along its route include Boston; New York; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Norfolk; Beaufort, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah; Jacksonville, Florida; and Miami.

The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway is made up of rivers, bays, sounds, and marshes, as well as important artificial waterways. It incorporates (runnning from north to south) the Cape Cod Canal; Long Island Sound; Delaware Bay; the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal; Chesapeake Bay; the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal; Albemarle and Pamlico sounds; the marshes of the Sea Islands; and the lagoons of Florida's east coast. It is also connected to several inland waterways, including the New York State Barge Canal System and the Hudson River. Much of the waterway can accommodate deep-draft vessels; the shallowest section, which is only 2 m/6 ft deep, is in the Dismal Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina. The Intracoastal Waterway was originally planned as a single system that would extend all the way from the Northeast to Texas; however, there is still a break between the Atlantic and Gulf sections because a vital linking canal in southern Florida was never completed, for environmental reasons. The Army Corps of Engineers administers and maintains the entire waterway.