Loop Life with Greg and Reenie: THE DISMAL SWAMP

On Wednesday, June 20th we traveled from Elizabeth City to Norfolk, Virginia.

Not only did we cross the Virginia State line, we successfully traversed The Dismal Swamp 😊.

We enjoyed a perfect weather day, and the sightseeing on The Dismal Swamp Canal was anything, but Dismal. The scenery was absolutely stunning......one of those amazing Looper pinch me days ("Is this for real?") ♥️.

The Dismal Swamp Canal is a 22 mile long man made Canal that connects North Carolina to Virginia, and all the ports on the Chesapeake Bay. The Dismal Swamp Canal is the oldest man made canal in the United States.

In 1763, George Washington made his first visit to the Great Dismal Swamp. At that time he suggested digging a canal to connect the waters of North Carolina and Virginia. As the first President, Washington agreed with Virginia Governor Patrick Henry that a canal was the easiest answer for efficient transport and transportation.

In 1784 the Dismal Swamp Canal Company was created. Work on the Canal started in 1793. The Dismal Swamp Canal was dug completely by hand, most of the labor was done by slaves hired from nearby landowners. It took about twelve years of backbreaking construction to complete the 22 mile long waterway. The Dismal Swamp Canal opened in1805. Prior to opening, the Canal shipments had to go overland on poor tracks or by ship around the treacherous Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Today the United States Army Corp of Engineers operate and maintain the Canal. About 2,000 pleasure craft transit the Canal each year, as they pass through on the ICW. The historic Canal is also recognized as part of the Underground Railroad, for runaway slaves seeking freedom.

The logistics to transit The Dismal Swamp Canal are pretty straightforward, but it does take some planning. Locks only open at 8:30am, 11:00am, 1:30pm and 3:30pm. We also needed to have the Elizabeth City Bridge open in order to arrive at the first lock before 8:30 am. We set our alarm for 5am and pushed off the dock by 5:15am (We really wanted to make the first opening, to hopefully avoid the predicted afternoon thunderstorms).

The next morning we were overly excited to start the days journey, as we have heard so much about this particular day on the Loop,and at the same time nervous, as there are many stories of Loopers hitting logs while traveling through the Canal. Our navigation Warning reads "Dismal Swamp Route is beautiful, quiet and unique, but there are things that go BUMP in the day".

It all worked out perfectly 🙂, definitely a day to remember ✅.

Looper Tip: Don't plan on hurrying through the The Dismal Swamp, the Lock and Bridge openings are in sync with one another. We made the first Lock opening at 8:30am then the second Bridge opening at 1:30pm. Travel speed was about 5-7 miles per hour and we bumped about three "objects" and saw numerous dead heads (for you non boaters there were not any Greatful Dead fans, just lots of dangerous tree stumps in the waterway).