Lower Black Warrior Tombigbee Navigation Chart

The Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway was authorized by various River and Harbor Acts from 1884-1960 and provides a direct navigable waterway from the Gulf Coast at Mobile, Alabama to Port Birmingham, Alabama and much of mid-continental United States by way of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway which it joins at Demopolis Alabama.

Originally the waterway consisted of 17 dams and 18 lifts and was completed in 1915. Under a modernization program old locks 1,2, and 3 were replaced by Coffeeville Lock & Dam, old locks 4,5, and 6 by Demopolis Lock & Dam, old locks 7,8, and 9 by Armistead I. Selden Lock & Dam, old locks 10,11, and 12 by William B. Oliver Lock & Dam, old locks 13,14,15, and 16 by Holt Lock and Dam, and the old double lift lock at John Hollis Bankhead Lock & Dam was replaced by a larger single lift lock. Six lock and dams provide a total lift of 255 feet over a distance of approximately 430 miles. Authorized navigable depth of the waterway is 9 feet with a minimum width of 200 feet. This book shows the entire waterway from Mile 0 in Mobile, Alabama to the head of navigation on the Mulberry Fork at Mile 429.6, the Sipsey Fork at 430.4, and the Locust Fork at 407.8.