After passing through Fort Lauderdale, the channel connects to the Intracoastal Waterway and Atlantic Ocean at Port Everglades cut.

The mouth of the river was noted for its tendency to continuously change its entry point into the Atlantic Ocean through the shifting sand of the barrier island.

A trading post established in the 1890s by Frank Stranahan (1864–1929) at a ferry crossing of the New River became the nucleus of the city of Fort Lauderdale.

[3] Years later, Mrs. Ivy Stranahan recollected that in the early days of the trading post, the New River was so clear that fish and even large sharks could be easily seen in its depths.

Dredging for the canal began in 1906, not long after Napoleon B. Broward won the governorship of Florida on a promise to drain the Everglades.

1, North New River Canal, in the southeast corner of what is today Plantation, Florida, just under 2 miles west of the current Fort Lauderdale city border.

The North New River Canal served as a significant transportation route to and from the state's interior section south of Lake Okeechobee.

[6] Due to shoaling (silting) in the canal and newly constructed road and rail links to the interior section, Lock No.