The Great Loop: Circumnavigating the Eastern US by boat

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The Great Loop is an interconnected loop of waterways that enables transport throughout the entire Eastern US without traversing open ocean (with a few exceptions – see below!). There are many routes to take along the path, but the longest possible option is around 6,000 miles total.

For other maps on transportation routes, see posts on the Winter Park Express and the Senegambia Bridge!

Wikipedia Post

See the interactive Google Map at the bottom of the post!

Three key facts about this map

The Great Loop passed through many existing waterways throughout the Eastern US

Along the route, boaters will pass through many large and important bodies of water, mostly in the counterclockwise direction to flow downstream on the inland rivers, particularly the Mississippi and Ten-Tom Rivers.

If taking the longest, outermost route, boaters starting in Miami FL will travel along the following bodies of water in counterclockwise order:

Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway – which is a series of interconnected canals, lakes and watersheds along the eastern seaboard
**Open ocean** one of the only portions of open water along the route is in northern New Jersey, from Manasquan to NYC/Hudson River
Hudson River
Champlain Canal
Lake Champlain
Richelieu River – enter into Canada
St Lawrence River – bypassing the city of Montreal
Lake Ontario – with the option of bypassing Toronto and the Toronto Islands
Welland Canal (St. Catharines, Ontario) – connecting Lake Ontario & Lake Erie bypassing Niagara Falls
Lake Erie
Lake Huron
Lake Michigan – bypassing the Manitou Islands
Illinois/Chicago River
Mississippi River – **Fuel notice** the longest stretch of waterway between fuel sources is on the Mississippi River from Kimmswick, MO and Paducah, KY
Gulf Intracoastal Waterway – which is a series of interconnected canals, lakes and watersheds along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida
**Open sea** The Big Bend of Florida does not have a protected waterway, so boaters must travel directly across the Gulf from Carrabelle FL to Tarpon Springs FL where the inland waterway continues
Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
**Open sea** There is not a well-defined inland waterway between Cape Coral FL and Key West FL (with some exceptions such as Marco Island), so boaters must travel directly across the Gulf
Gulf Intracoastal Waterway connects back to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway
End back in Miami!

There are several options that boaters can take along the way, including:

Chesapeake Bay, C&D Canal, Delaware Bay – an inland option for those wanting to bypass Cape Charles, VA
Erie Canal – for those not wanting to travel up through Lake Champlain and Montreal
Oswego Canal – for those not wanting to travel the entire length of the Erie Canal; route cuts up to Lake Ontario
Tennessee River/Tenn-Tom Waterway – for those not wanting to travel on the Mississippi River which typically has a ton of barge traffic
Okeechobee Waterway – for those wanting to bypass the Florida Keys

The lowest bridge on the route is 19.6ft only tall

Throughout the journey of the Great Loop, boats travel under numerous bridges. No matter how much time or money it takes, there is an option to lift the bridges for taller boats throughout the entire length of the journey – except for 1 bridge in Lemont IL on the Illinois River. The bridge is a railroad crossing and is the lowest fixed/non-movable bridge throughout the entire Great Loop, sitting at 19.6ft above the water.

This means that if a boat cannot pass through a clearance of 19.6ft, it must turn around. Often taller boats travelling the Great Loop will have to remove antenna or radar systems to pass underneath. If the boat is a sailboat with a tall mast above 19.6ft, boaters must remove the mast completely to pass this low fixed bridge.

Typically there are only 200 people who complete the entire Great Loop journey each year

Because of the massive distance of nearly 6,000 miles only about 200 boats complete the entire Great Loop journey each year. The entire route can be completed in as little as 6 weeks, though most who embark to complete the entire journey spend around 1 year travelling. Many people tend to break up the loop into smaller pieces and complete the entire journey piecemeal over several years.

Additional links and sources

Organization that represents boaters on the Great Loop (link)
Information for crossing the “Big Bend” of Florida (link, published in 2014)
Blog about travelling the Great Loop (link, published in 2022)

Would you ever travel the entire distance of the Great Loop by boat?

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