In June 1985, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, opened the Tennessee - Tombigbee Waterway, a carefully planned engineering effort that created a year-round commercial navigation route 234 miles long from the rugged north Mississippi hills to the Black Prairie of central Alabama. By connecting the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River, the waterway cut the distance from the Tennessee River in northern Alabama to the Gulf of Mexico by over 800 miles. Construction began in May 1971, when President Nixon turned the first spade of dirt, and proceeded in three areas between the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers. In the Divide Section at the northern end, the Nashville District cut a channel through the high drainage divide and also built the Jamie Whitten Lock and Dam at the southern end of the Divide. In the Canal Section, the Mobile District built five additional locks and dams, creating a series of narrow lakes. In the River Section, extending south to the mouth of the Black Warrior River, the Mobile District built locks and dams near Aberdeen and Columbus, Mississippi, and near Aliceville and Gainesville, Alabama, creating a wider and straighter river through a series of shallow lakes. South of the River Section, the existing waterway to Mobile Bay passed through the previously constructed Demopolis Lock and Dam and the Cotteeville Lock and Dam. The Tenn-Tom now carries millions of tons of commercial cargo each year, saved companies millions of dollars in 1988 when a summer drought closed the Mississippi River to barge traffic, and provides boating, camping, swimming, daily-use parks, fishing, and extensive wildlife lands for hunting and observation.