Locks, Dams, & Levees - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are Boating's Unsung Heroes
- Richard Crowder
- Jul 17
- 7 min read
Part One – From Inception to the Early 1900s
In researching the last Waterways We Love series, this United States Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, surfaced around every corner, They have had enormous input into the creation and maintenance of most major waterways in the United States. In delving further into its work, a fascinating story of its projects and their effects on pleasure boating in the United States has to be told. The USACE story is so huge that even brushing the surface requires a two-part series.
1802 – USACE Formally Created as Part of the US Army
2025 will mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States Army on June 16, 1775 by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He appointed the first engineer officers to serve within the Army on that same date. The Corps of Engineers soon became a separate branch of the Army in 1802. One of its first tasks was to operate and provide faculty for the newly created US Military Academy at West Point, New York on the Hudson River. West Point was arguably the first engineering school in the United States.
The Years Prior to the War of 1812
Contributing to both military and civil construction, USACE was tasked with mapping navigation channels, clearing harbors, and building jetties, lighthouses, and coastal fortification, especially in the nervous years leading up to the War of 1812. The system of fortifications around New York City were rebuilt and the eleven-pointed Fort Wood on Bedloe Island in New York harbor was designed and constructed by USACE to scare off British warships. This fort later became the base for the Statue of Liberty. The Corps doubled in size after the war to satisfy the demand for fortifications throughout the United States.
Leading up to the war, the United States Congress realized it simply did not have adequate road or waterway transportation supply routes to service a conflict. In 1808, US Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin undertook a major study of the problem and presented his report, “Public Roads and Canals.” It was a proposal to Congress to promote inland water-related public works and the creation of a north-south inland protected waterway along the Atlantic coast. As railways did not yet exist, this report became the basis for hundreds of (mostly) river-based transportation projects many years down the road.
The War of 1812 with Britain and Canada ended in 1814 in a relative stalemate, but nothing was done about Gallatin’s proposal until the General Survey Act of 1824. It utilized many of his proposals to upgrade and improve waterway transportation. At this same time, USACE became the primary contractor and was given responsibility for maintenance and improvements. The US Coast Guard, America’s oldest military force founded in 1790, was also assigned responsibilities and supporting functions which included patrol and navigational support.
USACE – The Early Years
To give you an idea of the scope of USACE expertise, in 1822, it brought fresh spring water via iron pipes to the White House and federal buildings in Washington, DC. Quoting directly from USACE, “During the last half of the 19th century, the Corps improved navigation on the Potomac River and its tributaries; expanded the local water supply system; completed the Washington Monument; helped design and construct numerous structures including the Executive Office Building, the Lincoln Memorial, the Library of Congress, and the Government Printing Office; undertook swamp reclamation which resulted in the Tidal Basin; and developed Rock Creek Park as a major urban recreation area.” And all that was just in Washington, DC! USACE was already proving to be a versatile engineering and construction organization. The following is specific to pleasure boating.
1823 - Surveying and Charting the Great Lakes
USACE topographers had started piecemeal surveying of the Great Lakes in 1823, but the General Survey Act released funding for surveying to start in earnest in 1841. Systematic surveying of the 6000 miles (almost 10,000 km) of Great Lakes shoreline plus rivers, narrows, and shoals took 20 years, all while creating accurate latitude and longitude coordinates and producing navigation charts.
Initially completed in 1860, surveying and updating continued constantly through until 1970 when many of the USACE survey office's functions were transferred to the newly established National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). USACE retained responsibility for forecasting Great Lakes water levels through its Detroit District office.
Following the passage of the General Survey act of 1824, the Feds were trying to sort out the politics of Federal and State responsibilities in the planning and execution of transportation corridors both within States and crossing State lines. While the Feds were pondering the politics, the State of New York established its own New York State Canal System and forged ahead. It completed the Champlain Canal in 1823, the Erie and the Cayuga-Seneca Canals in 1825, and the Oswego Canal in 1828.
1831- 1851 – Design and Construction of Lighthouses
Dozens of lighthouses were built during this period along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Great Lakes. Some of USACE's most notable lighthouses include Cape Hatteras, Montauk Point, Harbor of Refuge, Sand Key, Jupiter Inlet, Sombrero Key, Spectacle Reef, Grosse Point, Au Sable, Oswego Harbor, and Wind Point. In 1832, Congress established the Lighthouse Board after which USACE was primarily involved only in the construction phase of lighthouses.
Meanwhile, USACE was busy mapping and opening up the US Midwest and West. It all came together when, in 1882, Congress signed the Rivers and Harbors Appropriations Act designed to improve waterways, both coastal and internally on rivers, to create better flow of goods within and without the States. It was further decreed that waterways thus created would be free of tolls. This Act proved the call to action and USACE became the instrument of action.
1877 - 1929 - Ohio River
The Ohio River was one of the most important commercial transportation routes in the booming development of the Midwest. But the Ohio was notoriously shallow, silty, and full of obstructions. In 1877, the Corps started the Davis Island project just south of Pittsburgh. Completed seven years later, the Davis Island Lock at 110 feet wide (33.5 m) by 600 feet long (183 m), in conjunction with a dam of over 1200 feet long, were the largest in the world. It was also the first use of concrete construction instead of stone masonry for a dam in the US.
There are 20 locks and dams on the Ohio River in the 980 miles (1577 km) from the Mississippi to Pittsburgh. You can boat an additional 72 miles (116 km) upstream on the Allegheny River through some more locks and dams as far as East Brady, PA. You may in addition take the other fork for 130 miles (210 km) almost due south up the Monongahela, locally referred to as the Mon River via its nine locks and dams into central West Virginia.
USACE built and now maintains the locks and dams as well as the nine-foot deep navigation channel along the entire length of the otherwise shallow river. By 1929, USACE had completed the channelization of the river which turned it into a series of reservoirs along its length and thus eliminating shallow areas and promoting commercial barge traffic.
1888 – 1924 - The Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers
Tennessee was a poor state economically, so opening up two of the State’s substantial river systems to navigation, the Cumberland and the Tennessee, was seen as an avenue to promote commerce. In the northern section, a series of locks and dams was started by USACE on the Cumberland River in 1888. Many revisions and additions later saw this system completed in 1924. Today’s 10 locks and dams handle both commercial and pleasure vessels.
In 1890, USACE created a diversion around a major obstruction in the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, thus allowing more commerce for much longer distances. In 1916, well into the World War One, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Defense Act authorizing the construction of a hydroelectric dam at Muscle Shoals. This massive dam was to produce the hydro necessary to produce ammonium nitrates for ammunition for the war effort and for fertilizer to improve agriculture. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created in 1933, and with the help of USACE, completed its plans of locks and dams on the Tennessee River in 1945.
1900 - Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal
A north-south height of land called a 'divide' located a few miles west of Lake Michigan prevented the natural flow of water between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. An early narrow and shallow canal tried to solve this problem, but it was always running short of water and drying up.
When a new canal was planned, solving this problem was an utmost priority since the new wider and deeper canal would need more water. USACE was assigned the task to engineer and construct what was originally named the Chicago Drainage Canal but when it was opened in 1900 was called the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal as it is still called today. There are eight locks and dams operated and maintained by USACE.
USACE developed a unique solution to both the issue of Chicago’s garbage and sewage entering Lake Michigan from the outflow of the Chicago River. The solution was to reverse the flow of the Chicago River and have it drain not into Lake Michigan but west through the new canal and through the height of land divide and into the Des Plaines, then the Illinois, and then the Mississippi River and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico. The end result was the only commercially viable waterway connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system. Without it, there would be no “Loopers.”
Following the International Joint Commission (IJC) recommendation and formalized under regularly updated US Supreme Court decisions, Chicago is currently allowed to draw, still under the management of USACE, around two billion gallons (7.5 billion litres) of water per day from Lake Michigan, about half of which is for drinking, sanitary, and commercial use and eventually gets flushed into the canal and downstream to the Mississippi. The other half includes water for navigation purposes in the river and canal.
WWI – Standardized Freight Barges
World War I provided some real eye-openers for Congress as the transport of bulk cargo including farm commodities around the country and the inadequacy of such transport became apparent. As a result, Congress authorized the first use of standardized freight barges to be 195 feet long by 35 feet wide and capable of carrying 1500 tons of cargo. One barge can hold the equivalent of 15 rail cars or almost 60 tractor-trailer loads of grain.
USACE then became busy rebuilding many locks and re-dredging many channels to accommodate economical loads of five long by three wide barge traffic. The increase in use of barges caused road and rail maintenance to be reduced proportionately and freight rates to lower as competition increased.
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