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Canal History - Canal Story
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Early Plans and
Attempts
The idea of constructing a Canal through the isthmus
of Cape Cod was first considered and explored by Miles
Standish of Plimoth Colony in 1623. Standish recognized
that a waterway connecting Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod
Bay would facilitate trade between Plimoth Colony, native
American Indians and the Dutch merchants sailing from
New York. Although such an undertaking was far beyond
the means of the small colony, the proposal by Standish
gave birth to the idea of building the Canal. For more
information on Pilgrim trading in the Canal area, visit
the Bourne Historical Society website at http://www.bournehistoricalsoc.org/
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During the Revolutionary War, George Washington saw
a need for a Canal to give greater security to the American
fleet against its enemies. Upon General Washington's
orders, Thomas Machin, an Engineer with the Continental
Army, investigated the feasibility of a Canal in 1776.
His report, recommending that a Canal be built, survives
as the first known Cape Cod Canal survey.
Over the next century numerous surveys and Canal feasibility
studies were conducted by various individuals and groups.
Some were granted charters and a few actually began
construction, but they either ran out of money or were
overwhelmed by the enormity of the project. Meanwhile,
the toll of shipwrecks along the treacherous outer banks
of Cape Cod continued to mount. During the late 1880's,
shipwrecks occurred at the rate of one every two weeks.
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August Belmont's Toll Canal
In 1904, the wealthy financier August Perry Belmont
became interested in the Canal project. He purchased
and then reorganized the Boston, Cape Cod and New York
Canal Company, which had held a charter for Canal construction
since 1899.
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Belmont then enlisted the services of a renowned Civil
Engineer, William Barclay Parsons, to investigate the
feasibility of such a project.
Acting on favorable results of the engineering study,
Belmont decided to initiate construction of the Cape
Cod Canal. On June 22, 1909, he ceremoniously lifted
the first shovelful of earth at Bournedale, promising
"not to desert the task until the last shovelful
has been dug".
Belmont's company actually started work in May of
1909 when the first schooners arrived from Maine with
granite for construction of a breakwater. The rock was
transferred from the schooners to lighters from which
it could be positioned and dropped into place on the
east end of the Canal.
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Meanwhile, on the west end, two dredges were towed into
Buzzards Bay to begin work on the westerly approach
channel. Very little was accomplished that first year
before the advent of winter storms in November forced
the company to withdraw its floating plant to safe harborage
and wait for spring. By 1910 the Canal project was fully
underway. A fleet of twenty-six vessels including ten
dredges of various designs were deployed in Buzzards
Bay to work on the westerly entrance channel.
The Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge was completed by September
of 1910. It was a bascule bridge with a single span,
160 feet long, which pivoted on the north foundation.
The weight of the span was balanced with one huge counterweight.
The original Bourne and Sagamore highway bridges were
completed in 1911 and 1912 respectively.
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Each highway bridge consisted of two eighty-foot cantilever
spans. All three bridges were electrically operated. They
were each designed to provide navigational openings of
140 feet, a limitation which would later prove to be a
severe hazard for vessels moving in the Canal's swift
currents.
In planning and engineering the Canal project, Chief Engineer
Parsons had underestimated the presence of glacial boulders
along the route. As dredging progressed, the men and machinery
encountered nests of mammoth boulders, which they were
incapable of handling.
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Divers were brought in to place dynamite charges. Once
the dynamite was in place, the divers would withdraw
in small wooden scows and detonate their charges. This
time consuming process slowed dredging operations.
Falling behind schedule, the Canal Company decided
to use steam shovels to dig "in the dry" in
the middle of the isthmus. Acting on Parsons recommendation,
the Company also placed narrow gauge railroad tracks
along the Canal route to enable railed dump cars to
carry material off to the sides of the cut. Although
the tracks had to be moved frequently as the digging
progressed, the method did work fairly well.
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Still not satisfied with the rate of progress, Belmont
contracted with the American Locomotive Company in Patterson,
New Jersey for construction of two large dipper dredges
to be built at the Canal construction site. The GOVERNOR
HERRICK was assembled on the east end in Sagamore while
the GOVERNOR WARFIELD was being readied on the west
end in Buzzards Bay. By August 1912, these huge machines
began digging toward each other in the final phase of
Canal construction.
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With the additional dredging equipment now on site,
the Canal project progressed steadily. By April 1914,
only one dam separated the waters of Cape Cod Bay from
Buzzards Bay. To celebrate the progress, Belmont ceremoniously
blended bottles of water from both bays before opening
the final sluiceway. As the waters trickled through,
Belmont and Parsons shook hands; the long awaited completion
of the Cape Cod Canal was now in sight.
On July 29, 1914, the Cape Cod Canal opened
as a privately operated toll waterway. The festive Parade
of Ships included the excursion steamer ROSE STANDISH,
the destroyer MCDOUGALL carrying the then Assistant
Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and
Belmont's eighty-one foot yacht, the SCOUT. Mr. Belmont
had achieved his objective of opening the Cape Cod Canal
before the Panama Canal, which opened on August 15,
1914, seventeen days later.
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Although the charter depth was twenty-five feet, Belmont
decided to open the Canal with a controlling depth of
only fifteen feet. By opening at a lesser channel depth,
Belmont could then begin to receive revenue from ships
using the partially completed Canal. Belmont hoped that
once the charter depth was achieved, more tug and barge
traffic would find the Canal an attractive route.
Traffic steadily increased with the continued deepening
of the Canal. In 1915, with the channel twenty feet
deep, 2,689 vessel transits were recorded; the following
year the number of vessel transits reached 4,634 with
a gross tonnage of 3.5 million. However, the original
Canal never achieved the level of traffic or revenue
its investors had envisioned. Several serious accidents
caused lengthy Canal closures and mariners began to
fear the swift currents and narrow bridge openings.
By 1915, Belmont had already attempted to sell the faultering
Canal to the Federal Government.
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On July 22, 1918, a German submarine fired on the American
Tug PERTH AMBOY, in waters three miles off Nauset Beach,
Cape Cod. To assure greater coastwise navigational safety,
President Woodrow Wilson ordered the Federal Railroad
Administration to take over and operate the Canal. After
World War I Belmont reluctantly resumed operation of
the waterway while negotiating with the Federal Government
for its sale. Finally, in March of 1928 an agreement
was reached to sell the Canal for $11,500,000.
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A Wider, Deeper and Safer Canal
Congress directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
on March 31, 1928, under authority of the Rivers and
Harbors Act of 1927, to operate and improve the foundering
Canal. The toll was eliminated and a massive waterway
improvement program was undertaken. The Corps of Engineers
learned of navigational problems by listening to the
concerns of the waterway users. A detailed questionnaire
was distributed to shipping companies to find out why
various vessel types were avoiding the Canal. The Corps
learned that the moveable bridge spans, normally kept
in the down position, were causing great difficulty
for mariners, who were often faced with stemming a swift
current while waiting for the bridges to open. Guided
by this knowledge, the Corps selected two land areas
that were naturally elevated, and erected fixed high
level bridges designed to accommodate the superstructures
of large ocean going vessels; by providing a vertical
clearance of 135 feet above mean high water and a horizontal
clearance of 480 feet.
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The location of the existing railroad tracks and terminals made it impractical
to relocate the railroad bridge. Because of the gradual
grades required for locomotives, it was not feasible
to provide for a fixed high level railroad bridge. The
Corps selected a vertical lift bridge design with one
huge center span, counter-balanced with 1,100 ton weights
on either side. The center span remains in the raised
position except when it is briefly lowered to allow
rail traffic onto or off Cape Cod. The vertical and
horizontal clearances are the same as the highway bridges.
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The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 provided
4.6 million dollars in federal funding for construction
of the three bridges and other Canal improvements. The
bridge construction projects employed approximately
700 skilled and unskilled workers, providing needed
work during the Great Depression.
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On June 21, 1935, the highway bridges were opened to
traffic. In December of that year, the vertical lift
railroad bridge was completed.
Recognizing that it would be necessary to widen and
deepen the Canal, the Corps contracted with the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology to construct a hydraulic model
to test the concept of a straight approach through Buzzards
Bay to replace the sharply curving channel through Phinney's
Harbor. Data obtained from this study proved conclusively
that the direct approach channel would be feasible and
that dikes would reduce the need for maintenance dredging.
Construction of a 480 foot wide, 32 foot deep, and 17.4
mile long channel was approved by the Rivers and Harbors
Act of August 30, 1935. The work was initiated in 1935
and completed in 1940, making the Cape Cod Canal the
widest sea level Canal in the world. This broader, deeper
and safer two-way Canal attracted three times as many
vessels and eight times as much cargo tonnage as had
Belmont's Canal in its last year of operation.
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