Chiquita Lock, Cape Coral Live Cam

Chiquita Lock sits on a canal at Cape Coral, on the Gulf coast of Florida, and the camera looks east along the water. Boats wait for the gates on both sides.

Cape Coral has more canals than any city in the world: something like 640 kilometres of them, dug from 1957 by developers who sold waterfront lots off a map before the land was drained.

The lock exists because the canals behind it hold fresh water and the ones beyond it are tidal. Keeping the two apart controls the salinity and the level in the residential system, and taking it out has been argued over in court for years.