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The Assawoman Canal is a canal in Sussex County, Delaware. The canal links the Indian River Bay to the north with the Little Assawoman Bay to the south. It is bordered by Bethany Beach and South Bethany to the east and Ocean View to the west. Because of it, Fenwick Island is detached from the Delaware mainland.
Map of Assawoman Canal, Delaware, USA
The Assawoman Canal was initially dug by hand in the 1890s by immigrant labor. The canal was not dredged from the 1950s until 2006. By the early 2000s, it was no longer deep enough to handle the boat traffic that once passed through it when it was part of the Intracoastal Waterway. From 2006 to 2010, the state undertook a dredging project that restored the canal to navigability, with a channel width of 35 feet (11 m) and a depth of 3 feet (0.91 m).