--The intra costal waterway
General-
Gulf Intracoastal Waterway -
Slicing through lowlands near Surfside Beach, this canal is the most valuable waterway in America, carrying as much annual tonnage as the Panama Canal and more than twice that of St. Lawrence Seaway. The protected waterway was authorized in 1942 and completed in 1949. It now stretches 1,066 miles from Brownsville, Texas, to Carrabelle, Florida. Surfside bridge on Texas 332 east spans Intracoastal Waterway to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.