Cape Cod Canal

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The Cape Cod Canal is a man-made waterway traversing the narrow neck of land that anchors Cape Cod to mainland Massachusetts. It is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

There were many problems that the engineers of the Cape Cod Canal ran into. One was mammoth sized boulders. The engineers had to send in divers to blow these rocks up. Blowing the rocks up slowed dredging processes.The other problem was the cold winter storms. These storms forced them to stop dredging processes, and wait for spring. [1]


The engineers needed to understand the theory of plate tectonics because when the continents came together they changed the bedrock. Engineers needed to know this to know what the bedrock was like. [2]

The engineers decided which route through the hillsides to take by connecting and widening the Manomet and Scusset rivers.[3]

The Canal is roughly 17.4 miles long (approximately 7 of which are cut through land)[4] and connects Cape Cod Bay in the north to Buzzards Bay in the south. The 540-foot width of the canal is spanned by the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge and two highway bridges, the Bourne and the Sagamore. Traffic lights govern the approach of vessels over 65 feet and are located at either end of the canal.

The idea of constructing such a canal was first considered by Miles Standish of the Plymouth Colony in 1623, and Pilgrims scouted the low-lying stretch of land between the Manomet and the Scusset rivers for potential routes. In 1697 the General Court of Massachusetts considered the first formal proposal to build the canal, but apparently took no action. More energetic planning with surveys took place repeatedly in 1776 (per George Washington), 1791, 1803, 1818, 1824-1830, and 1860. None of these efforts came to fruition. These early attempts at actually building a canal did not take place until the late 19th century; they either ran out of money or were overwhelmed by project's size.

On June 22, 1909, construction finally began for a working canal under the direction of August Belmont, Jr's "Boston, Cape Cod and New York Canal Company", to designs by engineer William Barclay Parsons. The canal opened on a limited basis in 1914 and was completed in 1916. This privately owned toll canal had a maximum width of 100 feet (30 m), a minimum depth of 25 feet, and took a somewhat difficult route from Phinney Harbor [1] at the top of Buzzards Bay. Due to the narrow channel and navigation difficulty, several accidents occurred which limited traffic and blackened the reputation of the Canal. As a result, toll revenues failed to meet investors' expectations.

During World War I, German U-boats attacked ships travelling along the far Atlantic coast of Cape Cod, making the Canal an important "safe" shipping lane. In 1928 the government purchased the Canal for operation by the United States Army Corps of Engineers as a free public waterway. From 1935 to 1940, the government rebuilt the canal, increasing its approach width to 540 feet and its depth to 32 feet. It became the widest canal in the world. The southern entrance to the canal was rebuilt to proceed directly from Buzzards Bay, rather than through Phinney Harbor.

Early plan (1834)

Bourne Bridge

Railroad Bridge

Sagamore Bridge

Bourne Bridge with Railroad Bridge in the background

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cape Cod Canal, US Army Corps of Engineers
  2. ^ Metrick
  3. ^ Metrick
  4. ^ www.nae.usace.army.mil/recreati/ccc/education/ActivityBook.pdf
  • Massachusetts General Court, "Report of the Joint Committee of 1860 Upon the Proposed Canal to Unite Barnstable Bay and Buzzard's Bay", Boston : Wright & Potter, State Printers, pages 10-22, 1864.

[edit] External links