The lock and floodgate on the Herbert Hoover Dike at the town of Moore Haven is the point of origin for the Caloosahatchee Canal, which heads west for 50 miles to Fort Myers, and the Gulf of Mexico. The canal, and the channelized riverbed it occupies, is the west part of the 150-mile-long Okeechobee Waterway, the only navigable waterway across Florida. Built in 1935, the system has expanded, and now enables vessels as long as 250 feet, as wide as 50 feet, and with as much as an eight-foot draught, to take a shortcut across the state, crossing Lake Okeechobee, on the way.