Assawoman Canal

The Assawoman Canal is a canal in Sussex County, Delaware. The canal links the Indian River Bay to the north with the Little Assawoman Bay to the south. It is bordered by Bethany Beach and South Bethany to the east and Ocean View to the west.[1][2] Because of it, Fenwick Island is detached from the Delaware mainland.

Assawoman Canal
The path of the Assawoman Canal
Location	Sussex County, Delaware
Country	United States
Coordinates	38.5353°N 75.0765°W / 38.5353; -75.0765
Specifications
Length	4 miles (6.4 km)
Locks	None
Status	Open
History
Date completed	1891
Geography
Start point	Indian River Bay
End point	Little Assawoman Bay
Beginning coordinates	38.5577°N 75.0896°W / 38.5577; -75.0896
Ending coordinates	38.5057°N 75.0647°W / 38.5057; -75.0647
Branch of	Intracoastal Waterway

First proposed in 1884, the Assawoman Canal was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1891 for the purpose of moving goods by boat without having to travel into the Atlantic Ocean.[3] The canal was initially dug by hand in the 1890s by immigrant labor.[4] The canal was not dredged from the 1950s until 2006. By the early 2000s, it was no longer deep enough to handle the boat traffic that once passed through it when it was part of the Intracoastal Waterway.[5] From 2006 to 2010, the state undertook a dredging project that restored the canal to navigability, with a channel width of 35 feet (11 m) and a depth of 3 feet (0.91 m).[6][7]