Assawoman Canal facts for kids
The Assawoman Canal is a waterway in Sussex County, Delaware. It connects two bays, the Indian River Bay in the north and the Little Assawoman Bay in the south. This canal is near towns like Bethany Beach and South Bethany on its east side. To its west is Ocean View. Because of this canal, Fenwick Island is separated from the main part of Delaware.
Discover the Assawoman Canal
How the Canal Was Built
The idea for the Assawoman Canal first came up in 1884. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a group that builds and manages waterways, constructed it in 1891. The main reason for building the canal was to help boats move goods easily. This way, boats could avoid traveling out into the rough Atlantic Ocean.
Workers dug the canal by hand in the 1890s. Many of these workers were immigrants. For many years, the canal was an important part of the Intracoastal Waterway, a network of channels along the coast.
Keeping the Canal Clear
Over time, canals can get shallow from dirt and sand building up. This process is called dredging, which means clearing out the bottom. The Assawoman Canal was not dredged from the 1950s until 2006. By the early 2000s, it was too shallow for boats to use easily.
To fix this, the state started a big dredging project from 2006 to 2010. This project made the canal deep enough for boats again. Now, the canal has a clear path about 35 feet (11 m) wide and 3 feet (0.91 m) deep.
