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Wareham Harbor Navigation Project

Wareham Harbor is located at the head of Buzzards Bay in Wareham, about seven miles west of the Cape Cod Canal. A large recreational fleet is based at the harbor.

The earliest work in Wareham Harbor, completed in 1876, consisted of a two-mile-long channel extending from the harbor entrance adjacent to Long Beach to the lower wharves at Wareham. In the lower harbor, the channel was 10 feet deep and 250-300 feet wide. In the upper harbor, the channel was nine feet deep and 300 feet wide, narrowing to 100 feet along the Wareham waterfront, immediately below the U.S. Route 6 Bridge. In 1877, the Corps built sand fences and planted beach grass at Long Beach to protect it from erosion and keep the channel clear.

In 1896, the Corps completed a nine-foot-deep channel extending 1.8 miles from the harbor entrance adjacent to Long Beach to the lower wharves at Wareham. From the harbor entrance to Barneys Point, a distance of one mile, the channel is about 125 feet wide. From Barneys Point to the lower wharves at Wareham, the channel is about 250 feet wide, narrowing to 100 feet for its last 1,500 feet up to the U.S. Route 6 Bridge.

In 1917, the state deepened the channel to 12 feet over a 90-foot width from a point about 0.4 mile from the harbor entrance at Long Beach to an area immediately above Barneys Point.