Mile Zero - Portsmouth, VA - A History Lesson

Mile Marker 0, the "beginning" of the Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICW),  The marinas in the area use this mile 0 as some businesses in Key West use mile 0 on Hwy A1A.  You can find t-shirts and other souvenirs that proclaim "It all Starts at Mile 0".

Mile 0 lies in the Elizabeth River between Norfolk and Portsmouth VA, the “R36” buoy.  The ICW actually runs form north of Boston all the way down the East Coast and along the shore of the Gulf Coast to Brownsville, Texas. But the part from Portsmouth (Mile 0) to Miami (Mile 1095) is what most people refer to as the protected  “inside” Waterway, also known as “The Ditch.”

The concept for an Intracoastal Waterway dates back to Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin, who in 1808 proposed a system of canals that would link Boston Harbor with Brownsville Harbor. Congress rejected the full plan, but throughout the following decades, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers carried out a series of surveys, and construction began on various sections. Private investment also played its part. According to Florida historian William Crawford, construction of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway can be traced back to 1885, when the Florida Canal Co. began to dredge a canal between Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River. Robert L. Lippson and Alice Jane Lippson, authors of “Life Along the Inner Coast,” suggest the origin of the waterway dates back earlier to 1805, when a shallow canal was dug linking Deep Creek near Norfolk with the Pasquotank River.

The ICW consists of three (or four) segments: the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW), extending from Portsmouth, Virginia (milepost 0.0) to Key West, Florida; a section of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway beginning at Tarpon Springs, Florida, and extending south to Fort Myers and a second section of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway extending from Brownsville, Texas, east to Carrabelle, Florida. These segments were intended to be connected via a dredged waterway from St. Marks to Tarpon Springs and the Cross Florida Barge Canal across northern Florida, but these projects were never completed due to environmental concerns.  While not listed as an "official" section of the ICW, one could consider the section from Boston to Portsmouth as the fourth section.

Waiting in the Great Bridge Lock on the Eastern Route
This lock raises north bound traffic about 2 ft.

The Atlantic ICW follows two routes across Virginia and North Carolina to Albemarle Sound. The Dismal Swamp Canal navigates the eastern boundary of the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge, while the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal travels through Currituck Sound and into Albemarle Sound (I took the later route because the Dismal Swamp route is currently closed).  The entire journey south to Florida is a distance of 1,090 miles, viewed as a single north-south aquatic interstate.

The historic town of Beaufort, North Carolina (home to Blackbeard’s shipwreck) marks the start of a 1912 proposal by the Corps of Engineers for a 10-foot-deep waterway extending 925 miles south to Key West. In the event, the waterway was constructed in fits and starts. It encompasses such bodies of water as the Harlowe Canal in North Carolina and the estuary of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina. Crossing into Florida, it hugs the Atlantic seaboard through Cape Canaveral, Palm Beach and on to Miami.

It all makes the Loop possible for a lot of us.