Navigable route, coastal eastern U.S. Authorized by Congress in 1919 to provide sheltered passage for both commercial shipping and pleasure craft, and constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers, it was originally planned to form a continuous channel from New York City to Brownsville, Texas.
Because the link through Florida was never completed, it remains in two separate sections (see Gulf Intracoastal Waterway ). The Atlantic portion consists of rivers, bays, and canals from Cape Cod to Florida Bay, including the Cape Cod Canal and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.