Perdido Pass at Orange Beach, Alabama, is the tidal inlet where water from Perdido Bay reaches the Gulf of Mexico and a key boating entrance to the lower bay, Intracoastal Waterway, nearby islands, and coves. Framed by rock jetties and a dredged channel, it has been shaped by currents, storms, and engineering. The present inlet is relatively recent: until the early 20th century the pass lay about 2 miles farther east, but a new opening cut in 1906 and widened by the Mississippi hurricane shifted the shoreline and left the former waterway as Old River. Today it remains central to Orange Beach and even served as a defensive point during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.