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Posted By:
Hal Brown
Date Posted:
Oct 29, 2008
Description:
Flying westbound in South
Florida is the Okeechobee
Waterway.
According to the
Caloosahatchee River Citiizen's
Association
(http://crca.caloosahatchee.org)
there was a flood control project
in the 1930's wherein the St.
Lucie (east of the big Lake O)
and Caloosahatchee Rivers
(west of Lake O) were dredged
and channelized creating the
Cross-State Ship Channel. This
channel, now known as the
Okeechobee Waterway links the
Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic
Ocean. This offers boaters the
opportunity to traverse Florida,
from the Gulf to the Atlantic.
To do so, one must navigate a
series of five locks, three of
which are west of Lake
Okeechobee.
In the mid-1950's the channel
created in the previous dredging
was enlarged to a width of 250
feet and a depth of 8 feet.
Bridge crossings were either
replaced or relocated.
Construction of the W.P.
Franklin Lock and Dam,
originally known as the Olga
Lock, began in 1962,
approximately twenty five miles
upstream from the Gulf near
Olga; its purpose was to assure
a fresh water supply for much
of Lee County and to prevent
salt water intrusion into
upstream aquifers.
Today, the Caloosahatchee has
three lock and dam structures
located in Olga, Lee County (WP
Franklin), Ortona and Moore
Haven, Glades County--the later is shown in the photo during a recent flight to/from Okeechobee (KOBE).
Date Taken:
Oct 29, 2008
Place Taken:
Moore Haven, Fl
Owner:
Frank Carr
File Name:
Moore_Haven_Lock.jpg - Photo HTML
Full size - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZT190000h">
Medium - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZT190000m">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZT190000s">
Category:
34, Florida Flying
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Click on photo to view the original size. |
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Read what others had to say:
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Randy Wilder - Oct 29,2008
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Interesting info. I didn't realize the lake was connected to the Caloosahatchee. Now I'll have to start patrolling that river too. Especially since it's getting colder in north Florida now.
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Dan Nickens - Oct 29,2008
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Good spotting, Frank. Randy has remnants of the old 'Cross Florida Barge Canal' to check out in northern Florida. It was one of the big environmental battles in Florida during the late 60's. Nixon temporarily stopped funding for it in the early '70's. The project finally died in Congress in the early 1990's and was converted to a cross state 'greenway.' It would be interesting to see if the impact of your canal was as dire as predicted for the northern one.
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Frank A. Carr - Oct 29,2008
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The impacts Dan of the Okechobee Waterway range from wonderful to disasterous depending upon the amount of rain in any given season and your point of view. It seems to the unbiased/uneducated observer that fish, manatees, boating, crabs, floods, sealife and other elements of ecology have either been saved or destroyed by the Corps of Engineer's Waterway. The arguements go beyond me and what space here would tolerate.
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Dennis Scearce - Oct 29,2008
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Does that mean that all of Florida that is south of this channel is actually an island?
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Frank A. Carr - Oct 29,2008
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Along with the 10,000 islands, I guess you could say it's really 10,001. Good call Dennis.
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