We decided to stop at Bay Springs Marina for fuel and to stay the night. Shingibiss, another looper boat also stopped. We decided to dinghy to the Bay Springs Visitor Center. It was a long dinghy ride for us since we have a smaller engine than Shingibiss. Not a big deal, in fact it was a nice ride.
The display at the Visitor Center showed how the Tenn Tom Canal was developed and built. It's amazing that this 234 mile man-made waterway was first proposed in Colonial times then again during the Franklin Roosevelt era and finally came to fruition as part of Nixon's reelection strategy. The Corps of Engineer's 1971 budget included $1 million to start construction of the canal. The project ultimately took almost $2 billion. The Tenn Tom officially opened to commerce on January 10, 1985. The Tenn Tom is the largest earth moving project in history, requiring the excavation of nearly 310 million cubic yards of soil or equivalent of more than 100 million dump truck loads. By comparison, the French dug about 105 million cubic yards in building the Suez Canal and a total of 210 million cubic yards of earth were removed from the Panama Canal.
So while we are at the Visitor's Center another couple was looking at the display. Liz, Shingibiss, started talking to them and found out they had mutual friends. They are also loopers on Goldleaf. Small world. We all decided to lock through together tomorrow.
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