The Lake Worth Lagoon is a lagoon located in Palm Beach County, Florida. It runs parallel to the coast, and is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by barrier beaches, including Palm Beach Island. The lagoon is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by two permanent, man-made inlets.
Lake Worth Lagoon is located at coordinates 26°40′53″N80°02′45″W / 26.68139°N 80.04583°W . It is approximately 21 miles (34 km) long and up to a mile wide. The Lake Worth Inlet connects the northern part of the lagoon to the ocean. It is the entrance channel to the Port of Palm Beach. The South Lake Worth Inlet (also known as the Boynton Inlet) connects the southern part of the lagoon to the ocean. It is used primarily by recreational boaters. The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway runs the entire length of the lagoon. Eight causeways and bridges connect the mainland to the barrier beaches, including Palm Beach Island.
The lagoon is named "Lake Worth" in honor of William J. Worth, last commander of United States troops in the Second Seminole War. [1] The Seminole language [Note 1] name for the lagoon, as given by a Seminole informant in 1870, was Hypoluxo, translated as "water all around no get out", referring to the landlocked status of the lagoon. [2]
In the mid-19th century the Lake Worth Lagoon was a fresh water lake. There were no rivers or streams flowing into the lake; all of the flow into the lake was by ground seepage from the Everglades to the west. Extreme high tides and waves, high lake water levels and storms occasionally caused the formation of temporary inlets that quickly closed up again. [3] When there was no inlet available, the settlers in the area had to haul their boats over the barrier beaches to move them between the ocean and the lake.
In 1866 travelers reported that fresh water was pouring out of the lake into the ocean at a point about ten miles (16 km) south of the Jupiter Inlet. [4] One report is that a settler named August Lang had dug the channel to open an inlet, and it was known as "Lang's Inlet" for a while. This cut drained the lake down to sea level. [5] The limited inflow of ocean water through the inlet and continued seepage of fresh water from the Everglades kept the lake from becoming more than mildly brackish. Lang's Inlet was unstable, and had to be dug out again every few months. Construction of a stable inlet at the "Black Rocks" one mile (1.6 km) north of Lang's Inlet was finally achieved in 1877. The lake immediately began to change to a saltwater lagoon. The completion of a navigation canal from the north end of Lake Worth Lagoon to Jupiter Inlet in the 1880s resulted in increased freshwater discharges to the lagoon.
In the early 1900s, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway was completed from the south end of the Lagoon to Biscayne Bay. By 1915, the Port of Palm Beach had created a permanent inlet four feet deep at the old location of Lang's Inlet, which was deepened to 16 feet (4.9 m) in 1925. In 1917 the South Lake Worth Inlet was created in a failed effort to improve tidal circulation and provide flushing to the south end of the Lagoon. The completion of the West Palm Beach Canal (which connected to Lake Okeechobee, draining land west of West Palm Beach as well as the Everglades) in 1925 resulted in significant freshwater inflow to the lagoon.
Lake Worth Lagoon is completely surrounded by the urbanized area of Palm Beach County. Much of the shoreline has been dredged and filled-in. Bulkheads now line 81 percent of the shoreline of the lagoon. Mangroves, which once lined most of the shoreline of the lagoon, have been reduced to just 283 acres. Several bridges cross the lagoon. Man-made inlets from the ocean allow salt water to mix with fresh water in the lagoon. Man-made canals dump varying amounts of fresh water into the lagoon. Untreated stormwater from the surrounding urban areas flows into the lagoon. The Port of Palm Beach, several marinas and a power plant on the shores of the lagoon also add pollution to the lagoon. Since 1994, there has been heightened awareness of the need for water quality improvements and habitat restoration and enhancement within the Lagoon. A Lake Worth Lagoon Management Plan was approved in 1998, updated in 2013, to guide the Lagoon's restoration and enhancement. [6]
An unexplained wake in the lagoon on August 24, 2009, was caught on tape by a local group known as the LagoonKeepers, who named it "muck monster". [7] [8] The identity and existence of the creature remains unconfirmed, as it did not break the surface during the time observed. It displayed a wide wake, but then appeared to descend deeper when observers approached within 10 feet.
Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 97,422 in the 2020 census and it ranked as the 23rd-largest city in Florida in 2022. However, many people with a Boca Raton postal address live outside of municipal boundaries, such as in West Boca Raton. As a business center, the city also experiences significant daytime population increases. Boca Raton is 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami and is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which had a population of 6,138,333 at the 2020 United States Census.
Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's third-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and Broward County and the 26th-most populous in the United States, with 1,492,191 residents as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is West Palm Beach, which had a population of 117,415 as of 2020. Named after one of its oldest settlements, Palm Beach, the county was established in 1909, after being split from Miami-Dade County. The county's modern-day boundaries were established in 1963.
Lake Worth Beach, previously named Lake Worth, is a city in east-central Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, located about 64 miles (103 km) north of Miami. The city's name is derived from the body of water along its eastern border known as the Lake Worth Lagoon, which was named for General William J. Worth, who led United States Army forces during the last part of the Second Seminole War. Lake Worth Beach is situated south of West Palm Beach, southeast of Lake Clarke Shores, east of Palm Springs, and north of Lantana, while a small section of the city also partitions the town of Palm Beach. The 2010 census recorded a population of 34,910, which increased to 42,219 in the 2020 census. Lake Worth Beach is within the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,138,333 people in 2020.
Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intracoastal Waterway to its west and a small section of the Intracoastal Waterway and South Palm Beach to its south. It is part of the South Florida metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, Palm Beach had a year-round population of 9,245.
South Palm Beach is a town located in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The town is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida and situated on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. The entire town is approximately 5⁄8 of a mile (1.0 km) long along South Ocean Boulevard, its only street. It is between the Town of Palm Beach to the north and the Town of Lantana and its public beach to the south.
The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a 3,000-mile (4,800 km) inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following the Gulf Coast to Brownsville, Texas. Some sections of the waterway consist of natural inlets, saltwater rivers, bays, and sounds, while others are artificial canals. It provides a navigable route along its length without many of the hazards of travel on the open sea.
Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge is a United States National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), and part of the Everglades Headwaters NWR complex, located just off the western coast of North Hutchinson Island in the Indian River Lagoon east of Sebastian, Florida. The refuge consists of a 3-acre (12,000 m2) island that includes an additional 2.5 acres (10,000 m2) of surrounding water and is located off the east coast of Florida of the Indian River Lagoon. Established by an executive order of President Theodore Roosevelt on March 14, 1903, Pelican Island was the first National wildlife refuge in the United States. It was created to protect egrets and other birds from extinction through plume hunting. The oldest government wildlife refuge of any kind in North America is the Lake Merritt Bird Refuge in Oakland, California. Oakland Mayor Samuel Merritt declared it a wildlife refuge for migrating birds in 1869. In 1870, the state of California designated Lake Merritt a state game refuge.
Biscayne Bay is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is largely undeveloped with a large portion of the lagoon included in Biscayne National Park.
Jupiter Island is a barrier island on the coast of Martin and Palm Beach counties, Florida. It is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the St. Lucie Inlet, on the west by the Indian River, and on the south by the Jupiter Inlet. Jupiter Island originally was two islands, Long Island on the north and Jupiter Island on the south, which were once separated by an inlet in the vicinity of North Jupiter Narrows and what is officially called Peck Lake, but commonly called Peck's Lake.
The Jupiter and Lake Worth Railway was a 3 feet (0.91 m) narrow gauge railway with a 7.5 miles (12.1 km) connection between the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway system in Florida. It connected the Lake Worth Lagoon at Juno to the Jupiter Inlet at Jupiter. With intermediate stops at Venus and Mars, the railroad was often called the Celestial Railroad, with the first use of that name appearing in the March 1893 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine in an article written by Julian Ralph. A report published by the town of Jupiter in 2012 noted that Mars and Venus "were not much more than loading platforms."
The Treasure Coast is a region in the southeast of the U.S. state of Florida. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and comprises Indian River, Martin, and St. Lucie counties. The region, whose name refers to the Spanish Treasure Fleet that was lost in a 1715 hurricane, evidently emerged from residents' desire to distinguish themselves from the Gold Coast to the south.
The Indian River Lagoon is a grouping of three lagoons: the Mosquito Lagoon, the Banana River, and the Indian River, on the Atlantic Coast of Florida; one of the most biodiverse estuaries in the Northern Hemisphere and is home to more than 4,300 species of plants and animals.
The Indian River is a 121-mile (195 km) long brackish lagoon in Florida. It is part of the Indian River Lagoon system, which in turn forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. It was originally named Rio de Ais after the Ais Indian tribe, who lived along the east coast of Florida, but was later given its current name.
The Hillsboro Canal is located in the southeastern portion of Florida within the South Florida Water Management District, and for much of its length forms the border between Broward and Palm Beach counties; however, its western end was entirely in Palm Beach County, until being recently annexed to Broward County-Parkland, FL. It begins at Lake Okeechobee at the S-2 water control structure in South Bay west of Belle Glade, Florida. It passes within the southern border of the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and flows southeast from there along Loxahatchee Road in a rural, lightly populated area. When it reaches the more heavily built-up region further east, it bends to head due eastward, forming the county line. Near its eastern end at the Intracoastal Waterway, with Boca Raton to the north and Deerfield Beach to the south, it departs from its straight course to go around several curves, but the county boundary continues to follow it at this point. 10 miles of the canal is navigable, and it is popular for recreational boating and fishing.
The Palm Beach Inlet, also known as the Lake Worth Inlet is an artificial cut through a barrier island connecting the northern part of the Lake Worth Lagoon in Palm Beach County, Florida with the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by the town of Palm Beach on the south, and by the town of Palm Beach Shores to the north. The inlet is also the entrance channel for the Port of Palm Beach. Its coordinates are 26°46′20″N80°02′14″W.
The St. Lucie River is a 35-mile-long (56 km) estuary linked to a coastal river system in St. Lucie and Martin counties in the U.S. state of Florida. The St. Lucie River and St. Lucie Estuary are an "ecological jewel" of the Treasure Coast, central to the health and well-being of the surrounding communities. The river is part of the larger Indian River Lagoon system, the most diverse estuarine environment in North America with more than 4,000 plant and animal species, including manatees, oysters, dolphins, sea turtles and seahorses.
Lake Osborne, Florida, USA is a 378-acre lake that is part of a system of once natural freshwater lakes lying along the western slope of the coastal ridge in Palm Beach County just west of the Florida Intracoastal Waterway and Atlantic Ocean. It is located within the C-16 drainage basin which occupies approximately 40,031 acres of land. Five drainage canals discharge directly to Lake Osborne, and Lake Osborne discharges via the E-4 canal to the C16 and C51 canals to the Lake Worth Lagoon. The lake is bordered on the west by John Prince Memorial Park, and on the east be the City of Lake Worth.
The New River is a tidal estuary in South Florida, United States. Despite its name, it is not a river, but a channel composed of many tributary canals, The channel is connected to the Everglades through a series of man-made canals. After passing through Fort Lauderdale, the channel connects to the Intracoastal Waterway and Atlantic Ocean at Port Everglades cut. The channel is entirely within Broward County and is composed from the junction of three main canals which originate in the Everglades, splitting off from the Miami Canal. They are the North New River Canal, which flows south from Lake Okeechobee along the east side of U.S. 27 and then east along the north side of State Road 84 / Interstate 595; the South New River Canal, which flows east from the Miami Canal along the north side of Griffin Road and the south side of Orange Drive; and a canal which flows east along the south side of Sunrise Boulevard.
The South Lake Worth Inlet, also known as the Boynton Inlet, is an artificial cut through a barrier beach connecting the south end of the Lake Worth Lagoon in Palm Beach County, Florida with the Atlantic Ocean. The inlet is 130 feet (40 m) wide and 6 to 12 feet deep.