The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway took $2 billion and twelve years to build, but even before the 234-mile-long canal opened in 1985, it became notorious as one of the biggest Government boondoggles of all time. Connecting the Tennessee River with Alabama's Tombigbee River, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, the waterway was intended to give commercial traffic an alternative route to the Mississippi River. But the Tennessee-Tombigbee quickly proved to be much more popular with pleasure boaters than with shippers, who prefer the Mississippi because it is deeper, wider and has fewer locks.
This summer, though, boaters accustomed to placid...
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