Ross Prairie

Ross Prairie. Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. , Welcome to the Summit , Ross Prairie is a wetland surrounded by a high-and-dry ecosystem known as sandhills. The plants and animals here live on ancient sand dunes, leftovers from when the ocean was higher., This area's topography presented a challenge to the builders of the Cross Florida Barge Canal. They called the stretch between Ocala and Dunnellon the canal's "summit reach." To reach the top, engineers designed a series of locks that would lift barges up to five stories above sea level, where you are now., Canal Opposition Rises , In the 1960s, environmentalists challenged the barge canal in courts and in the media. Activist Marjorie Harris Carr successfully lobbied President Richard Nixon to suspend barge canal construction. To the west, you can still see a 20-foot-deep wound in the earth , evidence of a failed 1930s attempt to build a sea-level ship canal through these high lands., [inset 1969 leaflet text] , The present Cross Florida Barge Canal was approved by Congress in 1942 with first construction funds in 1963; but it had been considered for more than 100 years and was actually started as a ship canal in the 1930s. Construction started February 27, 1964, with President Lyndon Johnson on the site and giving the signal., The Barge Canal has been endorsed by the President of the United States and by Congress; by Florida’s entire congressional delegation and the Florida Legislature; by the present and several past governors of Florida and the Florida Cabinet; the State board of Conservation; The Florida League of Municipalities; the State Association of County Commissioners; Gulf Intracoastal Canal Assn.; the AFL-CIO; National Rivers and Harbors Congress; Florida Waterways Association; Florida East Coast Railroad… and many other groups and individuals whose own study of the project resulted It a determination that a completed Barge Canal will benefit all of Florida and the nation., Economic and recreational advantages derived after completion of the Barge Canal will benefit all of Florida. In addition to the obvious assets from a low-cost bulk cargo transportation shortcut, the completed Canal will also aid in flood control and, in some cases, raise water tables. Beyond all this, the national defense aspects, alone, virtually justify earliest possible completion of the project., “Main Street, U.S.A.” , that’s what the Cross-Florida Barge Canal has been called. When completed, it will provide 185 miles of toll free, protected waterway across Florida from the Intracoastal Waterway near Jacksonville to deep water in the Gulf of Mexico near Yankeetown. The Canal will connect some 26,000 miles of inland water in 29 states in providing a water route from the Eastern Seaboard and Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf and Mid-continental U.S.A. , from New Jersey to Mexico. . This historical marker was erected by Florida State Parks. It is Near Dunnellon in Marion County Florida