Across central Florida, long stretches of forest, quiet waterways and walking trails follow a route that was never supposed to look this way. Beneath the trees lie the remains of one of the state's most ambitious engineering schemes, a canal that was intended to cut directly across the peninsula and link the Gulf of Mexico with the Atlantic Ocean. For decades, the proposal attracted political support, public funding and high expectations. It also drew persistent criticism from people who feared lasting damage to Florida's rivers, wetlands and underground water supply. By the early 1970s, the project had come to a halt, leaving behind an unfinished landscape that would eventually take on a very different purpose.
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