Cruising into History

Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway General Information

Dismal Swamp Canal Traveling Information

Deep Creek and South Mills Locks normal operating schedule is: openings at 8:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m., 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The schedule is subject to change during droughts or adverse weather conditions; call to confer before transiting the canal.

Drawbridges at Deep Creek and South Mills are unmanned and open in conjunction with the lock operating schedule. The lock operator also serves as bridge operator, therefore cannot be in both locations at the same time. Some delays in the opening can be expected, as they will be coordinated with the adjacent locks. Deep Creek Lock and Bridge operators can be reached at (757) 487-0831, the South Mills Lock and Bridge operators can be reached at (252) 771-5906 or marine radio channel 13.

Boats can anchor or moor overnight in canal; limited tie-up facilities are located along the canal.

The Dismal Swamp Canal Visitor Center, built by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, is located near mile marker 28 on the canal. The Visitor Center has a variety of published brochures and pamphlets with information on accommodations and attractions, 150’ dock, canoe/kayak launch, restrooms, vending machines, picnic tables, and grills. Call (252) 771-8333 or visit www.dismalswamp.com for additional Visitor Center information.

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Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal Traveling Information

Great Bridge Lock opens on demand, but works in conjunction with the Great Bridge Bridge openings. The schedule is subject to change during adverse weather conditions. The Great Bridge Bridge is operated by the City of Chesapeake. It opens every hour from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and on demand after 7:00 pm. Great Bridge Lock operators can be reached at (757) 547-3311 or marine radio channel 13.

North Landing Bridge opens every hour and half hour from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and on demand at all times for commercial traffic and after 7:00 pm. North Landing Bridge operators can be reached at (757) 482-3081 or marine radio channel 13.

Historic Canals

The Dismal Swamp and the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canals

Great Bridge Reservation and Lock

Tour Boat on Dismal Swamp Canal

Finally, in 1793, construction began on both ends of the Dismal Swamp Canal. The canal had to be dug completely by hand so progress was slow and expensive. Most of the labor was done by slaves hired from nearby landowners. It is interesting to note that the slaves became so familiar with the swamp during this period that it eventually became a haven for runaways. Later, in the anti-slavery era prior to the Civil War, “Harper’s Weekly” artist David Strother visited the area and reported that there were large colonies of runaway slaves in some sections of the swamp. Harriet Beecher Stowe patterned her main character in the novel, “Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp,” on one of Strother’s sketches. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was inspired to pen his poem, “The Slave in the Dismal Swamp,” based on Stowe’s character.

By 1796, the costs of building the canal had far exceeded the projected estimates. The company halted work and began a road to connect the two canal sections. The road was completed in 1802. The famous Irish poet, Sir Thomas Moore, visited the area soon after and immortalized “The Lake of the Great Dismal” in a ballad about a legendary love affair.

The completed canal would eventually open in 1805, twelve years after it was begun. Because it was so shallow, its use was limited to flat boats and log rafts that were manually poled or towed through. Shipments consisted mainly of logs, shingles, and other wood products taken from the swamp’s great stands of cedar and juniper. Needless to say, this was a far cry from what farmers, lumbermen and merchants originally envisioned as a regional trade route. Throughout its history, the Dismal Swamp Canal has experienced hard times.

Deep Creek Lock

The owners would give up trying to maintain it, let it fall into disrepair and eventually sell it. The maintenance problems were the result of flaws in the canal’s original concept and design. Water levels between its beginnings in Deep Creek and its original end in Joyce’s Creek were not correctly measured. This left the canal without an adequate source of water and subject to natural rainfall and drainage conditions. Even with the feeder ditch built to supply water from Lake Drummond, the canal was still dry in periods of low rainfall and drought. The problem remains, even today. To preserve water levels in the federally protected Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, the feeder ditch is periodically shut off during dry spells. This prevents the canal from draining waters of the swamp and damaging its fragile ecosystem.

The Dismal Swamp Canal is the oldest operating artificial waterway in the United States. It is also rich in history and folklore. Visitors and canal navigators travel where famous explorers and presidents have stood and literary greats have been inspired for over two hundred years. For example, astride the two states’ border is the site where the infamous “Halfway House” hotel was built in the late 1820’s. The hotel was a popular spot for marriages, duels and those escaping the law. Since the hotel was on the state line, this last group simply walked to the other side of the hotel to avoid being captured in either state. It is also said that Edgar Allen Poe wrote “The Raven” during one of his stays at the hotel. And, as you follow the canal, you retrace the course of James Adams’ Floating Theatre, where Edna Ferber got the idea to write the novel “Showboat” upon which the famous musical is based.

Today, the Dismal Swamp Canal is on the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic Landmark, and is also noted as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. In February 2004, the Dismal Swamp Canal was included in the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. It is maintained by The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a navigational resource along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

The Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal

By that time, however, the Dismal Swamp Canal was firmly established. The state of Virginia owned quite a bit of stock in the canal company and a new canal was viewed as a competitive threat. The man who carefully put the pieces together to begin the canal was Tidewater Virginian, Marshall Parks, Jr. Parks’ father had been superintendent and chief engineer of the Dismal Swamp Canal during its first major period of reconstruction in the late 1820’s. The younger Parks had also been an official with the Dismal Swamp Company and was thoroughly familiar with the canal’s problems. He visualized the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal as the answer to more efficient commercial trade between the two regions. The new canal would be wider and deeper than most of others of its day. Parks planned for it to handle the larger steamers and future growth. It would also have only one lock, instead of the Dismal’s then seven, considerably reducing passage time.

Construction of the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal was accomplished by seven steam dredges on floating platforms. Had an attempt been made to dig the canal prior to steam-powered technology, it would have failed. The dredges had to gouge the canal out of low-lying mucky ground, scooping up huge tree trunks and petrified logs that lay beneath the surface. When the canal was finished in 1859, it was an engineering marvel. It consisted of only one lock and two relatively short man-made channels, the Virginia Cut and the North Carolina Cut. The single lock, which balanced lunar tides of the southern branch of the Elizabeth River with the wind driven ones of the North Landing River and Currituck Sound, was 40 feet wide and 220 feet long, the longest along the Atlantic coast and the second largest in the entire U.S. The reversible gate heads, allowing ships to lock up or down depending on water levels, were probably the first of their kind. In addition, four times a day when the levels were equal and the winds favorable, the gates were left open to permit clear passage.

The opening of the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal gave the Dismal Swamp Canal serious competition. The two coexisted for fifty-four years, with the Albemarle and Chesapeake carrying most of the traffic. There was only a short period when the older canal stole away a significant amount of the commercial shipping. This occurred in the years following 1899, when the Dismal reopened after being entirely rebuilt at a cost of over one million dollars. The triumph was short-lived, however.

The final blow was delivered when the United States government chose to buy the Albemarle and Chesapeake in 1913. Both canals were considered for purchase, along with building one of the two new routes, as part of the government’s plan to establish a continuous inland waterway as provided for in the River and Harbor Act of 1910. The Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal had defaulted on a bank loan and was sold at foreclosure in 1910. Three years later it sold for only half a million dollars.

Following the sale, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers went to work making improvements, and the Albemarle and Chesapeake was made toll free. For the next sixteen years, in a reversal of roles, the Dismal Swamp Canal wavered on the edge of bankruptcy. Finally, in 1929, the government also purchased the Dismal in an act of fairness.

Today, the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal is traveled mostly by commercial craft while the Dismal Swamp Canal is frequented by recreational boaters. As a suggestion, try making a two-day trip: up one canal and down the other with an overnight stay in Elizabeth City. This friendly city on the narrows of the Pasquotank River is also an historical treasure. Its location near the Dismal Swamp Canal makes it the major southern trans-shipment point for cargoes heading to and from the Chesapeake Bay along the canal. While there, be sure to stop at the Mariner’s Wharf city docks for a visit with the famous Rose Buddies, the town’s self-appointed welcoming committee for visiting cruisers. The city’s historical district is a short walk from the docks.

AIWW Information from Other Districts

FROM	TO	DISTRICT	MAP Location
Virginia-North Carolina State Line, Beacon No. 63, North Landing River	Little River, South Carolina	Wilmington District Corps of Engineers P.O. Box 1890 Wilmington, NC 28402-1890 www.saw.usace.army.mil	Click on the Image
Little River, South Carolina	Beuafort, South Carolina	Charleston District Corps of Engineers 69-A Hagood Avenue Charleston, SC 29403-5107 www.sac.usace.army.mil	Click on the Image
Beaufort, South Carolina	Fernandina, Florida	Savannah District Corps of Engineers P.O. Box 889 Savannah, GA 31402-0889 www.sas.usace.army.mil	Click on the Image
Fernandina, Florida	Key West, Florida	Jacksonville District 701 San Marco Blvd Jacksonville, FL www.saj.usace.army.mil	Click on the Image

Historical Time Line: Dismal Swamp Canal

Historical Time Line: Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal

The Corps of Engineers and Navigation

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