If you’re planning on the Great Loop or just cruising on the East Coast this summer, you’ll have to wait a while to go through the Great Dismal Swamp. The Army Corps of Engineers, which closed the Great Dismal Swamp Canal after Hurricane Matthew in October, now says it may not reopen until late this summer.
The 22-mile-long canal dates back to George Washington, who visited the Great Dismal Swamp in 1763 and suggested draining it to create a waterway connecting the Chesapeake with Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. After the canal was dug, mostly by slave labor, it opened in 1805, and is now the oldest operating man-made canal in the U.S.
The canal starts at ICW mile 7.2 just below Norfolk, Virginia, and flows to Elizabeth City in North Carolina. The main ICW goes through Virginia Cut and Coinjock down to Albemarle Sound.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which now operates the canal, is still dredging parts of it to restore its 6-foot depth. In places, as a result of Hurricane Matthew, the canal was shoaling to less than one foot. The Corps is also repairing three miles of the Feeder Ditch to Lake Drummond. For more:
