OCALA, FL (352today.com) – It was once billed as one of the largest civil engineering projects in Florida history. The Cross Florida Barge Canal, a massive undertaking that aimed to connect the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean via a 107-mile inland shipping route, promised to reshape the state – and Ocala was meant to be a key player in its transformation.
But like many ambitious dreams of mid-century development, the canal was stopped mid-dig. Today, it stands as one of Florida’s visible and controversial “what ifs” – a project that literally left a scar on the landscape and still sparks debate decades later.
First proposed in the early 1800s, the canal concept was revived multiple times over the years, gaining serious momentum during the 1930s New Deal era and later in the 1960s, when President Lyndon B. Johnson formally broke ground on the project. The goal: to create a barge-friendly waterway stretching from the Gulf at Yankeetown to the St. Johns River near Palatka.
Ocala, roughly midway along the proposed route, stood to benefit from increased commerce, industrial expansion and federal investment. Plans called for locks, bridges and barge ports throughout Marion County, where excavation work quickly began. The canal would have sliced through areas just north of the city and passed east of Ocala, cutting across the Ocklawaha River Basin.
Advocates envisioned a boom for Ocala’s economy. Local politicians and business owners hoped the canal would transform the region into a freight and logistics hub, bringing jobs and federal dollars to and area still rooted in agriculture and phosphate mining.
By the late 1960s, however, environmental concerns began to eclipse the economic promise. Conservationists, led by activists like Marjorie Harris Carr, sounded alarms about the destruction of the Ocklawaha River ecosystem, displacement of wildlife and long-term ecological costs.
Public pressure mounted, and in 1971, President Richard Nixon ordered a halt to construction. At the time, roughly one-third of the canal had been completed, including several major bridges, excavated sections and the Rodman Dam, which flooded much of the Ocklawaha River valley – permanently altering habitats and displacing small communities.
Though the Cross Florida Barge Canal was officially deauthorized in 1990, its ghost lingers across the state. In 1991, the land set aside for the canal was redesignated as the Majorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway, preserving the corridor for recreation and conservation rather than shipping.
Today, Ocala residents can hike, bike and paddle along a green ribbon of land that was once meant to host diesel barges and cargo vessels. What was once a promise of industrial growth becoming a symbol of environmental preservation – and a lesson in balancing progress with protection.