As south Florida's naturally smooth coastline was carved into an artificial system of linear canal-ways the environmental effects of canal construction and management began to be seen. Resulting legislative restrictions on waterfront land development increased despite the growing demand for shoreline property. Developers soon looked to south Florida's inland wetlands where, eventually, thousands of acres of Florida's swamps and marshes were drained by canals and channels.

The first water drainage initiatives in Florida began with Hamilton Disston of the Philadelphia tool manufacturing family and Henry Flagler of the Florida East Coast Railroad Company. After Florida became a state in 1845, the US government transferred 20 million acres of swampland to the state of Florida. The state immediately offered railroad companies such as Flagler's, huge tracts of land in exchange for opening up the frontier by rail for development, and guaranteed bonds issued by railroad companies in order to fund construction. By the end of the Civil War, the railroad companies had gone bankrupt and the state was unable to fulfill its obligation to bondholders.

In 1881, the state of Florida sold 4 million acres of Florida wetlands to Disston at the cost of 25 cents per acre, or $1 million in cash. Disston proclaimed that he would literally drain the Everglades and began his plan by dredging canals and connecting Lakes Kissimmee, Hatchineha, Tohopekaliga and other lakes that formed the headwaters for the Kissimmee River which was deepened and straightened. Later, Disston blasted out the waterfall of the Caloosahatchee River and connected three lakes (Hicpochee, Bonnet, and Lettuce) with canal systems. Disston's endeavors drained 50,000 acres, increased agricultural lands, and enabled watercraft navigation from the central Florida town of Kissimmee to the Gulf of Mexico. Although he died in 1894 and his family promptly sold all of his land holdings in Florida, Disston's legacy in the Sunshine State continued to live on.

Early legislation promoted the construction of a drainage system and, despite opposition, Governor Napolean Bonaparte Broward pushed-through a $250,000 tax-supported plan to create the Everglades Drainage District and a 200 foot wide canal between Lake Okeechobee and the Saint Lucie River. The first project began in 1906 with the construction of the New River canal that reached from Lake Okeechobee to Fort Lauderdale. In northern Florida, in 1907, the Federal Rivers and Harbors Act also permitted a six foot channel to be built from the Oklawaha River to Silver springs. In 1919, the Peace Creek subbasin was modified, and that same year the Florida legislature passed the Winter Haven Lake Region Boat district and constructed a navigation and control system through 25 central Florida lakes.

The unexpectedly high cost of drainage construction prompted the state government to issue drainage bonds in order fund further development and boost land confidence in 1912. Five years later, the Palm Beach Canal was completed between Lake Okeechobee and West Palm Beach. As a result, William J.Conners developed 16,000 acres and named it the Everglades Agricultural Area and constructed a toll road along the Palm Beach canal. The newly drained muck soil provided extraordinary crop yields to happy farmers; however they later learned that during the dry season the fertile soil burned like tinder, dried to a fine powder and blew away, or oxidized and released nutrients into the surrounding canals.

By 1926 the Florida land boom had collapsed and several drainage projects had been left incomplete. Still, the newly developed land encouraged population growth. By 1929, droughts, floods and the deadly hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 had forced legislators to form the Okeechobee Flood Control District and to issue additional bonds to generate funding for the completion of drainage projects.

In the eye of the hurricane	Hundreds were killed	A high levee was built	The levee is 140 miles long	Hurricane gates were built

Yet again, however, Florida's canal projects were left incomplete, this time by the Great Depression of the 1930s. Completion of the projects eventually fell to the US Army Corps of Engineers. By mid twentieth century, Florida also created the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Districts to maintain structures created by the Corps.

The zest for canal and dam construction failed to wane. By 1947 in the Florida panhandle, construction commenced on the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam at the confluence of Apalachicola, Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers as a way to improve navigation and generate electricity. In the 1960s major water control endeavors continued: the Four Rivers Basin Project was implemented in the Tampa area, and construction of the Cross Florida Barge Canal from Palatka to the Gulf was resumed (until it was halted in 1971 by President Nixon in response to growing opposition to its completion).

Today, thousands of miles of canals and levees, and multitudes of water control structures have been carved into southern Florida and other areas throughout the state. Although canal construction decreased dramatically by the end of the 20th century, the arduous task of maintaining and managing the huge artificial water system remains.

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