Cape Cod Canal

File:Canal du Cap-Cod (Massachusetts), 1834 map.jpg

Construction of a canal was first considered by Myles Standish of the Plymouth Colony in 1623, and the Pilgrims scouted the low-lying stretch of land between the Manomet{{efn|Manomet River later became known as Monument River.{{cite web |url = https://www.capecodmuseumtrail.com/a-history-of-the-cape-cod-canal/ |title = A history of the Cape Cod Canal |first = Glenn |last = Ritt |website = capecodmuseumtrail.com |date = January 18, 2016 |accessdate = May 16, 2023 }}}} and Scusset rivers for potential routes. William Bradford established the Aptucxet Trading Post in 1627 at the portage between the rivers. Trade prospered with the Indians of Narragansett Bay and the Dutch of New Netherland, and this was a major factor enabling the Pilgrims to pay off their debt.{{cite news |last = Reid |first = William J. |title = The Military Value of the Cape Cod Canal |work = United States Naval Institute Proceedings |date = August 1965 |page = 83 }}

In 1697, the General Court of Massachusetts considered the first formal proposal to build the canal but took no action.{{cite book |last1 = Conway |first1 = J. North |title = The Cape Cod Canal: Breaking Through the Bared and Bended Arm |date = 2008 |publisher = Arcadia Publishing Incorporated |isbn = 9781625843821 |page = 16 }} In 1717, a canal was created in Orleans, Massachusetts called Jeremiah's Gutter which spanned a narrower portion of the Cape some distance to the east, but it remained active only until the late 1800s. More energetic planning with surveys took place repeatedly in 1776 (commissioned by George Washington),{{harvp|Conway|2008|p=18}}. 1791,{{harvp|Conway|2008|p=20}}. 1803, 1818, 1824–1830, and 1860. None of these efforts came to fruition.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

The first attempts at actually building a canal did not take place until the late 19th century; earlier planners either ran out of money or were overwhelmed by the project's size. The engineers finally decided which route to take through the hillsides by connecting and widening the Manomet and Scusset rivers. The first excavation began in 1880, when the Cape Cod Ship Canal Company hired 400 immigrant Italian laborers to begin digging with shovels and wheelbarrows. The effort ran out of money almost immediately, and the laborers were unpaid and forced to beg for food in Sandwich. In 1883, the Cape Cod Ship Canal Company reorganized under engineer Frederick Lockwood. The company used a bucket dredge to clear nearly a mile of channel through the Sandwich marshes before shutting down in 1891.{{cite book |last = Timothy |first = Orwig |date = 2013 |title = Cape Cod Canal |publisher = Arcadia Publishing |isbn = 9781467120364 |pages = 20–22 }}

File:Postcard view of breaking the dam of the Cape Cod Canal, July 1914.jpg

On June 22, 1909, construction finally began for a working canal under the direction of August Belmont Jr.'s Boston, Cape Cod & New York Canal Company, using designs by engineer William Barclay Parsons. The canal engineers encountered many problems, such as huge boulders underwater. Divers were hired to blow them up, but the effort slowed dredging. Another problem was cold winter storms which forced the engineers to stop dredging altogether and wait for spring.{{cite web |author = New England District |url = http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/recreati/ccc/ccchome.htm |title = Cape Cod Canal |publisher = US Army Corps of Engineers |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20031205005523/http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/recreati/ccc/ccchome.htm |archive-date = December 5, 2003 }} Nevertheless, the canal opened on a limited basis on July 29, 1914,{{cite magazine |date = July 20, 1914 |url = https://archive.org/stream/independen79v80newy#page/n92/mode/1up |magazine = The Independent |title = The Story of the Week: Opening the Cape Cod Canal |volume = 79 |issue = 3423 |page = 88 |access-date = February 24, 2016 |via = Archive.org }} and it was completed in 1916. The privately owned toll canal had a maximum width of {{convert|100|ft|m}} and a maximum depth of {{convert|25|ft|m}}, and it took a somewhat difficult route from Phinney Harbor at the head of Buzzards Bay.{{cite web |url = http://www.mass.gov/dep/water/resources/mepmap.htm |title = Massachusetts Estuaries Project – Map & List of Targeted Estuaries |publisher = Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection |access-date = August 10, 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120609202133/http://www.mass.gov/dep/water/resources/mepmap.htm |archive-date = June 9, 2012 }} Several accidents occurred due to the narrow channel and navigation difficulty, and these limited traffic and tarnished the canal's reputation. Toll revenues failed to meet investors' expectations as a result, despite shortening the trade route from New York City to Boston by {{convert|62|mi}}.{{cite magazine |title = The Opening of the Cape Cod Canal |magazine = Bulletin of the American Geographical Society |volume = 46 |issue = 11 |year = 1914 |pages = 832–834 |jstor = 200951 |doi = 10.2307/200951 }}

File:CapeCodCanalEastEndAerial.jpg at right]]

On July 25, 1918, the Director General of the United States Railroad Administration took over jurisdiction and operation of the canal under a presidential proclamation. Four days earlier, the German U-boat {{SMU|U-156||2}} surfaced {{convert|3|mi|km|0|spell=in}} off Orleans, Massachusetts on July 21, 1918, and shelled the tugboat Perth Amboy and her string of four barges. The canal remained under government control until 1920, during which the United States Army Corps of Engineers re-dredged the channel to {{convert|25|ft|m}} deep.

In 1928, the government purchased the canal for $11.4 million as a free public waterway, and $21 million was spent between 1935 and 1940 increasing the canal's width to {{convert|480|ft|m}} and its depth to {{convert|32|ft|m}}.{{harvp|Reid|1965 |pp= 85–86}}. As a result, it became the widest sea-level canal of its time.{{cite web |url = http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/recreati/ccc/Navigation/navigation.htm |access-date = May 23, 2009 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090618002030/http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/recreati/ccc/Navigation/navigation.htm |archive-date = June 18, 2009 |title = Cape Cod Canal at Army Corps of Engineers website }} The southern entrance to the canal was rebuilt for direct access from Buzzards Bay rather than through Phinney Harbor. Before construction began, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology built a huge scale model of the canal (9 feet to a mile, roughly {{frac|1|587}} actual size) to study the hydraulic effects of tidal currents on the enlarged and rerouted canal.{{cite magazine |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lNsDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA567 |title = Model of Cape Cod Canal Helps Study of Channel |magazine = Popular Mechanics |date = April 1936 |page = 567 |via = Google Books }}

During World War II, shipping again used the canal to avoid U-boats patrolling offshore. It was protected by coastal artillery batteries at the Sagamore Hill Military Reservation at the northern entrance and the Butler Point Military Reservation at the southern entrance. The artillery was never fired in defense of the canal.{{cite web |url = http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/masouth.html#boston |title = Sagamore Hill Military Reservation |work = American Forts Network }}{{cite web |url = http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/masouth.html#newbedford |title = Butler Point Military Reservation |work = American Forts Network }}

The Mystic Steamship Company's collier SS Stephen R. Jones was grounded and sank in the canal on June 28, 1942. Shipping was routed around Cape Cod, and the Liberty ship SS Alexander Macomb was torpedoed by the German submarine U-215 on July 3 with the loss of ten lives. The canal reopened on July 31 after the wrecked Stephen R. Jones was removed with the help of 17 tons of dynamite.{{harvp|Reid|1965|pp=89–90}}.

The canal is used extensively by recreational and commercial vessels. Service roads on both sides of the canal provide access for fishing and are heavily used by in-line skaters, bicyclists, and walkers. Several parking areas are maintained at access points. Bourne Scenic Park is leased by the Corps of Engineers to the Town of Bourne Recreation Authority for use as a tent and RV campground adjacent to the Canal.{{cite web |author = New England District |title = Recreation Along the Cape Cod Canal |url = http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/recreati/ccc/recreation/recreation.htm |publisher = U.S. Army Corps of Engineers |access-date = October 31, 2009 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091128204130/http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/recreati/ccc/recreation/recreation.htm |archive-date = November 28, 2009 }}

The Army Corps of Engineers maintains the Cape Cod Canal Visitor Center which introduces visitors to the history, features, and operation of the canal. Features include a retired {{convert|41|ft|m|adj=on}} US Army Corps of Engineers patrol boat, a 46-seat theater showing continuous DVD presentations on canal history, canal flora and fauna, real time radar and camera images of the waterway, and a variety of interactive exhibits. Corps Park Rangers staff the center and provide free public programs on a variety of subjects. The Visitor Center is open seasonally from May to October, and admission is free. It is located on Moffitt Drive in Sandwich near the canal's east end. A second seasonally staffed center is at the Herring Run along Scenic Highway.{{Cite web |url = https://www.nae.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/Cape-Cod-Canal/ |title = Cape Cod Canal (Buzzards Bay and Sandwich, Mass.), New England District |publisher = U.S. Army Corps of Engineers |language = en-US |access-date = July 27, 2018 }}

Scusset Beach State Reservation lies just north of the east end of the canal and offers beach facilities as well as tent and RV camping. A {{convert|0.7|mi|km|adj=on}} trail there leads to Sagamore Hill, once an Indian meeting ground and the site of a World War II coastal fortification. Bournedale Hills Trail extends {{convert|1.4|mi|km}} along the north side of the Canal from Bourne Scenic Park campground to the Herring Run. The trail includes a {{convert|0.8|mi|km|adj=on}} self-guided loop which interprets the Canal's historic and natural features.

A spoof became popular during the late 20th century concerning a fictitious road tunnel, allegedly built in the 1960s, under the Cape Cod Canal.{{Cite web |url = https://newenglandtravelplanner.com/go/ma/capecod/cape_cod_canal.html |title = Cape Cod Canal |website = New England Travel Planner }} It came into popular usage in Massachusetts as a commentary on the severe traffic entering and exiting Cape Cod during the summer months. Since 1994, decals have been sold in shops around the Cape as popular souvenirs purporting to be "permits" allowing the bearer to use the tunnel; the popularity of these "permits" briefly led to a lawsuit among several different sellers.{{cite news |first = Felix |last = Carroll |url = https://www.capecodtimes.com/article/19991002/NEWS01/310029976?start=2 |title = A case of tunnel vision |newspaper = Cape Cod Times |date = October 2, 1999 }}{{cite news |first = James |last = Carlson |url = https://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20040903/NEWS01/309039941 |title = Sticking around |newspaper = Cape Cod Times |date = September 3, 2004 }} In 2019, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) said that it had studied the idea of adding a tunnel, but had no plans to do so.{{cite web |url = https://www.boston.com/cars/local-news/2019/05/24/cape-cod-tunnel/ |url-access = |title = Why MassDOT dismissed the idea of a Cape Cod tunnel |last = DeCosta-Klipa |first = Nik |date = May 24, 2019 |department = Local news |website = The Boston Globe |access-date = January 12, 2023 |via = Boston.com |quote = Officials say tunnels pose a lot more challenges compared to bridges, even if people keeping asking. }}

File:Cape Cod Canal - Bourne Bridge.jpg|Bourne Bridge

File:Cape Cod Canal - Railroad Bridge.jpg|Railroad Bridge

File:Sagamore Bridge Panorama.jpg|Sagamore Bridge

File:Digging the Cape Cod Canal -- Dredge Gov. Warfield.jpg|The Gov. Warfield digging the canal in 1914

File:1922 Cape Cod Canal plans.png|A 1922 map of the Cape Cod Canal, showing bridges, mooring points, and other features

• List of crossings of the Cape Cod Canal

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• {{Cite book |last=Butler |first=Gerald |year=2002 |title=The Military History of the Cape Cod Canal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6hDymrn3vwC |location=Charleston, SC |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=0738510092 |oclc=0738510092}}
• {{Cite report |author=Massachusetts General Court Joint Committee on Ship Canal to Connect Barnstable Bay and Buzzard's Bay |date=1864 |title=Report of the Joint Committee of 1860 upon the Proposed Canal to Unite Barnstable and Buzzard's Bays |url=https://archive.org/details/reportjointcomm01baygoog |location=Boston |publisher=Wright & Potter, State Printers |pages=10–22 |access-date=July 24, 2014}}
• {{Cite book |last=Reid |first=William James |date=1961 |title=The Building of the Cape Cod Canal, 1627–1914 |url=https://archive.org/details/buildingofcapeco0000will |location=New York |publisher=Privately printed |lccn=61-15903|oclc=987742}}

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{{Commons category|Cape Cod Canal}}

• {{Official website|https://www.nae.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/Cape-Cod-Canal/}}
• [http://galutschek.at/ships/cape_cod_canal/ Video clips of ships transiting Cape Cod Canal]

{{Massachusetts canals and reservoirs|state=collapsed}}

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Category:1914 establishments in Massachusetts

Category:Belmont family

Category:Bodies of water of Barnstable County, Massachusetts

Category:Bourne, Massachusetts

Category:Canals in Massachusetts

Category:Canals opened in 1914

Category:Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks

Category:Intracoastal Waterway

Category:Massachusetts culture

Category:Sandwich, Massachusetts

Category:Ship canals

Category:Tourist attractions in Barnstable County, Massachusetts

Category:Transportation buildings and structures in Barnstable County, Massachusetts

Category:United States Army Corps of Engineers

Category:Water transportation in Massachusetts