This area was planned as the western end of the Cross Florida Barge Canal, where water would enter the Gulf of Mexico, and state leaders wanted it to become the center of a vast commercial waterway network. Plans called for massive barges, tugboats, and trawlers in the bay and for digging a Gulf Intracoastal channel between St. Marks, 120 miles to the northwest, and Tarpon Springs, 60 miles to the south. The canal would have affected Florida's fresh and seawater systems, and the area would have been transformed by ships and dredges, with small industry giving way to new ports, highways, and factories. Environmental damage, including harm to seagrass and to recreational scalloping and fishing, would have been significant.