The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-09-15
NEW YORK TO KEY WEST-INTRA-
COASTAL WATERWAY


ways within easy reach
But the craft that would cruise from
the Great Lakes to Key West finds this
justly Wanted Inside Route" failing it at
two important points
AS it starts south it must face the
i hazard of the dreaded Jersey Coast with
its few harbors and its grim Barnegat
Shoals to be weathered.
As it approaches the end of the cruise
to perpetual summer seas it must forsake
protected waters at Bahia Honda, and
complete the journey in the open waters of
the Atlantic Ocean, or the Gulf of Mexico.
To remedy this condition, an active
organization at Point Pleasant, New Jer-
sey, is seeking to have the protected route
continued from Trenton, along the logical
route, to Point Pleasant, and thus avoid
and the Delaware Bay
Here in Key West, at the southern ex-
tremity of the route, we have but to clear
away few mud bars that blockade a
natural channel through the keys, and the
smallest cruiser need not hesitate to cast
off with Key West as its destination
To complete the Inside Route from
Point Pleasant to Trenton; and from Bahia
Honda to Key West, are twin projects es-
sential to the development of the immense
water-born traffic of yachts and CONNER
cial vessels, now baffled by the fact that
the safety provided stops just short of
reaching terminal point at each end.
Along this protected thoroughfare,
there is an almost incredible amount of
commercial and recreational traffic
Through one part of the channel with
which we are all familiar, namely Jewish
Creek, the thoroughfare between Barnes
Sound and Blackwater Sound, it is stated
that 1000 boats pass yearly.
Many of these boats are pleasure
yachts of the finest type, and only the
owners of these boats, or the men handling
their accounts. have any idea of the
amount of money spent on them while
they are in commission.
These private craft are outstanding
avenues for the circulation of millions of
dollars, expended at the ports into which
they put during the season. Their aver
age expenditure is estimated at $4,000 per
day. One yacht alone, during a five
months stay in Bay Biscayne is credited
with having disbursed $9O,OOO.OO.
1t is safe to say that an expenditure
of no more than one hundred to one hun
dred and fifty thousand dollars, would
open this end of the route to any yacht
that can navigate the channels already
open to the north of Bahia Honda, and
permit this well-found, affluent argosy to
seek new experiences in cruising area
now closed to them; and to re-fit and re-
provision here in Key West, with a very
considerable advantage to every phase of
business here conducted
We have been centering our attention
on the construction of a highway over
which cars may be driven, Somewhat to
the neglect of thoroughfare which would
afford access to many boats, each one of
which would be likely to mean many times
the business which the average car could
bring.
Of course, the clearing of the,way in
that short stretch between Key West and
Bahia Honda, a matter of only a little
over thirty miles and most of that already
natural channel, is what most readily APP
peals to us.
By all means let us work for the COM
pletion of these short links i'm the Inside
Route that it may become an Inside
Route" in fact we'll as in name; and let
us encourage similar activity on the part
of Northern yachtsmen to the end that
yachts seeking for winter cruising in South
ern seas may leave the Atlantic at Point
Pleasant, New Jersey, and come in long
procession along safe, protected route, to
Key West.