Tampa Bypass Canal: A vital flood prevention measure with historic significance and presidential ties
TAMPA, Fla. - You won't see the Tampa Bypass Canal on any map made before 1970, but if it weren't for the canal, a wet storm like Hurricane Debby could flood a lot more of Tampa.
"The Riverwalk, Harbour Island, Davis Islands, the south end of downtown all would probably be underwater," explained historian Rodney Kite-Powell of the Tampa Bay History Center.
READ: Debby aftermath: Tampa Bypass Canal System activated to help prevent Hillsborough River flooding
Tampa was plagued by the Hillsborough River flooding for generations.
After a series of storms in the 1950s and Hurricane Donna in 1960, a local congressman, Sam Gibbons, told his friend President John F. Kennedy what Tampa needed.
The late congressman related the conversation with Kennedy in a 2011 interview with FOX 13.
"We've had floods on the Hillsborough River, and we're trying to get a canal built," Gibbons told Kennedy. "We need it from Temple Terrace to Six Mile Creek."
It would need to be 15 miles long to bypass much of Tampa and flow safely into the bay.
Gibbons asked the President for $4 million to get started. The plan could have been lost when the country lost President Kennedy.
"When he was assassinated, I took it to President Johnson," Gibbons shared. "And he said, 'You got it, Sam!’"
The Bypass Canal would take years to build, but by the early 1970s the new canal was carrying water, and it was built for the ages.
"It's built to withstand a 100-year storm plus 25 percent, and we have not seen any storms yet approaching its capacity," Jerry Mallams stated of the Southwest Florida Water Management District in an interview with FOX 13 News a few years ago.
We never know what Mother Nature might send us, but wet storms like Debby would make Tampa a much wetter place if it weren’t for the canal. Its price tag in 1970 was $70 million.
READ: State Senator Joe Gruters calls for investigation, financial help following Sarasota County flooding
Experts say the canal has prevented countless floods that would have cost many times what was spent to build it. It's a safety net for Tampa that was born from a young congressman's conversation with Kennedy.
"And that's how the Bypass Canal got built," Gibbons told us in that 2011 interview. "And it will protect Tampa for many years to come."
SIGN UP: Click here to sign up for the FOX 13 daily newsletter