Florida's Canal Main Street (1963 Original Colored Film)

Explore the history and early construction of the Cross Florida Barge Canal in this captivating black-and-white film from 1963. The idea for a water route across Florida dates back to the Spanish and British colonial periods, with renewed interest following the Erie Canal's success in 1825. Although President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated work on the canal as part of the New Deal in 1935, the project stalled due to opposition. Reauthorized by Congress in 1962, the Army Corps of Engineers planned a 12-foot deep canal to connect the Saint Johns River near Jacksonville with the Gulf of Mexico near Yankeetown. The film features Governor Haydon Burns explaining the canal's purpose and design, illustrations of the proposed route, a geologist's testimony, Florida industry sequences, footage of 1960 flooding, an enemy submarine threat simulation, and President Lyndon B. Johnson setting off the first dynamite charges. Despite early progress, environmental concerns halted construction in 1971.

Source :
Burns, H., Canal Authority Of The State Of Florida Sponsor, Crooks, L. & Florida Development Commission Sponsor. (1963) Florida's Canal Main Street. [Florida: publisher not identified, to 1967] [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021671091