Prior to navigation improvements, a large part of the east coast of the Florida peninsula consisted of a series of long and narrow peninsulas and islands, parallel to the shore of the mainland, and separated there by salt or brackish sounds or lagoons. The Coast Line Canal & Transportation Company, between 1883 and 1912, in a land development navigation improvement agreement with the State, dredged connecting canals between the various natural sounds and lagoons along the entire east coast of Florida between Jacksonville and Miami, so that a continuous inside waterway was created between these two cities which also resulted in creating this Barrier Island, which we want named Veterans Island.

The series of artificial canals and natural waterways is now known as the Intracoastal Waterway from Jacksonville to Miami, Florida, and is maintained as a Federal navigation project (US Army Corps of Engineers 1988).