PROBLEMS FROM LAND OCCUPANCY 211 



of a quality similar to that in the canal nearby; and there 

 may be an increase in salinity of water in some wells remote 

 from the canal. 



Atlantic-Gulf Ship Canal, Florida. 45 A waterway across 

 Florida has been the subject of intermittent study and de- 

 bate since the days of President Jackson, for such a canal 

 would eliminate the expense and danger attendant upon 

 navigation of the long route around the Florida peninsula. 

 By 1934 plans had crystallized to the point of selecting the 

 most feasible route, and construction was begun in Septem- 

 ber 1935. The Congress, however, did not appropriate the 

 funds necessary for the completion of the project, and activ- 

 ity ceased after a few months of canal excavation and chan- 

 nel realignment. A major factor in the discontinuation of 

 the project was the reasonable doubt as to the deleterious 

 effect of a sea-level canal upon Florida's important ground- 

 water resources. 



The route selected for the canal extended from Jackson- 

 ville southward toward Ocala and thence westward to Port 

 Inglis (about 80 miles north of Tampa). The waterway 

 would have a length of 195 miles from deep water to deep 

 water, of which 90 would be an artificial cut through the 

 earth and rock of central Florida. The route was the most 

 economical of 28 routes investigated, for it traverses a sad- 

 dle in the backbone of central Florida where the natural 

 land surface rises to a maximum 108 feet above sea level. 

 The canal would traverse a trough in the piezometric sur- 

 face of the principal artesian aquifer, toward which ground 



45 References: "Waterway from Cumberland Sound, Georgia and Florida, to 

 the Mississippi River; Geology and Ground Water," U.S. 

 Engineering Office, Jacksonville, Fla., December 30, 1933. 



Beckman, H. H., "Documentary History of Florida Canal," 

 74th Congress, Senate Doc. No. 275, pp. 159-161, 409-415, 

 etc., 1936. 



Thompson, D. G., O. E. Meinzer, and V. T. Stringfield, 

 Effect of a Sea-level Canal on the Ground-water Level of 

 Florida, Econ. Geo!., vol. 33, pp. 87-107, 1938. 



