For centuries, men dreamed of cutting a canal across the Florida peninsula, despite the enormous technological and financial challenges of doing so. Heedless of environmental concerns, groups of water transportation advocates consistently lobbied the federal government to connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, a project intended to place Florida at the very center of American commerce and prosperity. The story of the Cross Florida Barge Canal, crucial to twentieth-century Florida history, is complex, featuring competing interests amidst the changing political landscape of modern Florida. The speaker, Dr. Steve Noll, traces the twists and turns of the project through the years. He is an instructional professor in the University of Florida’s history department, where received his PhD in 1991. He has written on general Florida history as well as more specialized subjects ranging from Florida environmental policy and the 1970s disability rights movement. In 2013, the Princeton Review named him one of the 300 best professors in the United States. This program is FREE and Open to the Public through a partnership with Florida Humanities. Florida Talks programs are sponsored in part by Florida Humanities with funds from the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts.