# Fla. intercoastal waterway

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fla-intercoastal-waterway/281541>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 25, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fla-intercoastal-waterway/281541 "2004-12-25T01:05:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fla-intercoastal-waterway/281541/1 "2004-12-25T01:05:08Z")

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Florida’s intercoastal waterway.

All nature, or some of it man made.?

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**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fla-intercoastal-waterway/281541/2 "2004-12-25T02:10:20Z")

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It’s _intracoastal_ waterway, and it extends all along the Atlantic Ocean. It was man-made to allow small boats to navigate it so that they would not have to navigate the more turbulent Atlantic Ocean.

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**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fla-intercoastal-waterway/281541/3 "2004-12-25T02:37:54Z")

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Parts of it are natural waterway, parts are man-made.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intracoastal\_Waterway](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intracoastal_Waterway)  
[http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/I/Intracoa.asp](http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/I/Intracoa.asp)  
[http://www.reedsalmanac.com/intracoastal\_waterway\_d.html](http://www.reedsalmanac.com/intracoastal_waterway_d.html)

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**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fla-intercoastal-waterway/281541/4 "2004-12-25T15:06:09Z")

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There are gaps where detours to the open sea are necessary.

“Intracoastal” is correct as it is “within the coast”, not between the coasts.

Parts of it are silting up and becoming too shallow for safe navigation and federal policy been to cut back on Corps of Engineer funding of dredging.