Roosevelt Backs the Cross-Florida Ship Canal

September 3, 1935 — A New Deal megaproject begins a Florida story that will span generations

On September 3, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced a $5 million federal allocation to begin work on one of the most ambitious public-works projects ever attempted in Florida — a ship canal across the Florida peninsula.

The dream was centuries old. The problem was obvious to anyone who studied a map: ships traveling between ports on the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico had to sail hundreds of miles around the Florida peninsula. A canal across northern Florida promised a shorter route, reduced shipping costs, and a way to avoid the sometimes dangerous waters around the Florida Keys.

For generations, people had talked about building one. In 1935, the Great Depression finally gave the idea the political momentum and federal money needed to put men and machines on the ground.

A Canal Becomes a New Deal Project

President Roosevelt's New Deal was putting Americans back to work through enormous public-works programs. Roads, bridges, parks, dams and other infrastructure projects were being built across the country.

Florida's long-discussed canal appeared to offer two benefits at once. It could create thousands of desperately needed jobs while building a commercial waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

On September 3, Roosevelt announced the $5 million allocation for preliminary construction of what was then envisioned as a deep-water ship canal. The announcement transformed an idea discussed for centuries into an active construction project. Workers soon poured into the Ocala area.

Camp Roosevelt

South of Ocala, an enormous temporary community emerged to support the project. It became known as Camp Roosevelt.

The camp housed workers and personnel associated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the massive labor force needed for canal construction. This was not simply a survey crew walking through the woods.

Heavy equipment began moving earth. Trees were cleared. Excavations appeared across the proposed route. Thousands of workers arrived in Central Florida hoping for a paycheck during one of the most difficult economic periods in American history.

For communities around Ocala, the canal briefly promised an economic boom. But beneath the optimism was a serious question: What would happen to Florida's water?

The Aquifer Problem

Florida is unlike many places where large canals had previously been constructed. Much of the peninsula sits above a vast limestone aquifer.

Opponents feared that cutting a deep sea-level canal across the state could damage the underground water system, lower groundwater levels, or allow saltwater intrusion. Those concerns emerged almost immediately.

There were economic objections as well. Critics questioned whether the enormous cost of the canal could ever be justified by the amount of commercial shipping that would actually use it.

Federal money eventually ran out, and the first great attempt to dig the canal stalled. The dream, however, refused to disappear.

War Brings the Canal Back

During World War II, the idea returned for a new reason. German U-boats operating along the American coast demonstrated the vulnerability of ships traveling around Florida.

Canal supporters argued that an inland waterway could provide a protected route for vessels moving between the Gulf and Atlantic. In 1942, Congress authorized a different concept: a shallower lock-and-dam barge canal rather than the original deep sea-level ship canal.

The project again waited for funding. More than two decades after Roosevelt's original allocation, another president would stand in Florida and restart the dream.

Lyndon Johnson Starts Digging Again

On February 27, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson came to Florida for ceremonies marking renewed construction of the Cross Florida Barge Canal.

The planned route would connect waterways across the peninsula using canals, rivers, locks and dams. Once again, supporters promised economic development, cheaper transportation and national-security benefits.

And once again, opposition grew. This time the argument would become one of the defining environmental battles in Florida history.

Marjorie Harris Carr and the Ocklawaha

At the center of that opposition was Florida scientist and conservationist Marjorie Harris Carr.

Carr and other conservationists became increasingly alarmed about what the canal would do to the Ocklawaha River valley, its forests, wetlands, springs and wildlife.

She helped lead Florida Defenders of the Environment, which challenged the canal scientifically, politically and eventually legally.

The fight reflected a larger change taking place in America. Projects once judged primarily by the jobs and economic development they created were increasingly being examined for the permanent environmental damage they might cause.

The Cross Florida Barge Canal became one of Florida's most important examples of that change.

Nixon Stops the Canal

On January 19, 1971, President Richard Nixon ordered construction stopped.

After decades of planning, repeated starts and enormous expenditures, the canal across Florida would never be completed.

Parts of it had already been built. Land had been cleared. Sections had been excavated. Locks and other structures stood as evidence of how close the centuries-old dream had come to becoming reality.

Congress eventually deauthorized the project in 1990. That might have been the end of the story. Instead, Florida did something remarkable with the land.

From Canal to Greenway

The enormous corridor acquired for the canal was eventually transformed into the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway, named for the woman who had devoted years to stopping the project.

Today the Greenway stretches approximately 110 miles across Central Florida, from the Gulf side of the state toward the St. Johns River.

More than 70,000 acres of former canal lands now form a vast conservation and recreation corridor. Instead of freighters and barges, much of the route is now traveled by hikers, bicyclists, horseback riders and wildlife.

It contains hundreds of miles of recreational trails and protects an extraordinary cross-section of Florida's natural landscape.

A $5 Million Decision With a 90-Year Legacy

The announcement President Roosevelt made on September 3, 1935, did not produce the canal its supporters envisioned.

It produced something far more complicated. The project created Depression-era jobs, reshaped communities, consumed millions of federal dollars, triggered debates about Florida's groundwater, returned as a national-defense project, and ultimately helped give birth to a powerful environmental movement.

And the land assembled for one of America's largest unfinished public-works projects ultimately became one of Florida's great conservation corridors.

The Cross Florida Canal therefore has an unusual place in Florida history. Its greatest legacy may be the canal that was never finished — and the land that was saved because of it.

Sources for Additional Reading

• Florida Historical Society: Federal Money Allocated for Cross-Florida Ship Canal on This Date.
• Florida Memory: The Cross Florida Barge Canal.
• Florida State Parks: History of the Cross Florida Greenway.
• Florida State Parks: Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway.