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Cape Cod Canal
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==History== [[File:Canal du Cap-Cod (Massachusetts), 1834 map.jpg|thumb|left|Early plan (1834) that indicates a route different from what was actually constructed {{in lang|fr}}]] Construction of a canal was first considered by [[Myles Standish]] of the [[Plymouth Colony]] in 1623, and the [[Pilgrim (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]] scouted the low-lying stretch of land between the Manomet{{efn|Manomet River later became known as Monument River.<ref>{{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 }}</ref>}} and Scusset rivers for potential routes. [[William Bradford (Plymouth governor)|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.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> In 1697, the [[General Court of Massachusetts]] considered the first formal proposal to build the canal but took no action.<ref name="conway">{{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 }}</ref> 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]]),<ref>{{harvp|Conway|2008|p=18}}.</ref> 1791,<ref>{{harvp|Conway|2008|p=20}}.</ref> 1803, 1818, 1824β1830, 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, Massachusetts|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.<ref>{{cite book |last = Timothy |first = Orwig |date = 2013 |title = Cape Cod Canal |publisher = Arcadia Publishing |isbn = 9781467120364 |pages = 20β22 }}</ref> ===Private construction=== [[File:Postcard view of breaking the dam of the Cape Cod Canal, July 1914.jpg|thumb|left|A postcard view of the July 4, 1914, breaking of the dam that separated the two rivers]] 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.<ref name="canal-home">{{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 }}</ref> Nevertheless, the canal opened on a limited basis on July 29, 1914,<ref>{{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 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.mass.gov/dep/water/resources/mepmap.htm |title = Massachusetts Estuaries Project β 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 }}</ref> 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}}.<ref>{{cite magazine |title = The Opening of the Cape Cod Canal |magazine = Bulletin of the American Geographical Society |volume = 46 |issue = 11 |year = 1914 |pages = 832β834 |jstor = 200951 |doi = 10.2307/200951 }}</ref> ===Public takeover and expansion=== [[File:CapeCodCanalEastEndAerial.jpg|thumb|Aerial photo of the Cape Cod Canal looking west with [[Scusset Beach State Reservation]] 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 [[U-boat Attack on Orleans, Massachusetts|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}}.<ref>{{harvp|Reid|1965 |pp= 85β86}}.</ref> As a result, it became the widest sea-level canal of its time.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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]] }}</ref> ===World War II=== 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.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/masouth.html#boston |title = Sagamore Hill Military Reservation |work = American Forts Network }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/masouth.html#newbedford |title = Butler Point Military Reservation |work = American Forts Network }}</ref> The [[Mystic Steamship Company]]'s collier SS ''[[USS Stephen R. Jones (ID-4526)|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 ''[[SS Alexander Macomb|Alexander Macomb]]'' was torpedoed by the German submarine [[German submarine U-215|''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.<ref>{{harvp|Reid|1965|pp=89β90}}.</ref>
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