Conceived since the seventeenth century by Captain Miles Standish of the Plimoth Colony, the Cape Cod Canal was completed in 1914 with the help of financier August Belmont after four years of construction.
Despite a toll of as much as $16 for vessels, August Belmont's canal quickly became a money loser. The canal could not accommodate ships with a depth of more than 15 feet, and its swift currents and narrow width further discouraged use by larger ships.
By 1915, Belmont attempted to sell the Cape Cod Canal to the Federal government. The Federal Railroad Administration acquired the canal three years later toward the end of World War I after a German submarine fired on an American tugboat, the Perth Amboy, three miles off the coast of Nauset Beach, Cape Cod.
In 1928, Congress directed the Army Corps of Engineers to widen and deepen the Cape Cod Canal.
Boston Roads
From the Massachusetts Historical Commission Reconnaissance Survey Town Report for Bourne
The construction of the Cape Cod Canal, planned since 1624, was begun in earnest in 1883-89 by the Cape Cod Ship Canal Company, which succeeded i n excavating a 7,000-foot ditch before going bankrupt. In 1899 the company's rights were acquired by the Boston, Cape Cod 6 New York Canal Company, backed, and later acquired, by the New York subway builder, August Belmont.
The 8-mile canal , engineered by William Barclay Parsons, formerly civil engineer on the Panama Canal Commission, opened for business as a toll route. Three drawbridges, high tolls, shallow depth, and narrow width all discouraged the traffic by which Belmont hoped to make the canal pay.
In 1918, the federal government took over the Cape Cod Canal as a war measure, and in 1928 it completed the purchase of the canal from its private owners. Improvements followed, and the landmark Bourne and Sagamore highway bridges over the Canal were completed Bourne in 1935, as were the monumental Buzzard's Bay vertical-lift railroad bridge. In 1936, dredging to widen and deepen the canal removed ten million cubic yards of earth.
The last major project of the period was the widening of the canal undertaken as a WPA project 1933-35 and the construction of three bridges . With a new 480-foot width, the canal became the widest sea-level canal in the world.
Massachusetts Historical Commission Reconnaissance Survey Town Report for Bourne
From the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers web site
The idea of linking two tidal rivers to create an all-water route across the seven mile isthmus of Cape Cod was first proposed by captain Miles Standish of the Plimoth Colony. But Standish's dream for a waterway through the isthmus was far too large a task for a small band of pilgrims. During the American Revolution, a canal at Cape Cod took on an importance as a way to circumvent British harbor blockades. Throughout the nineteenth century, many plans were made, but none succeeded. It would take a wealthy New York financier named August Belmont and modern engineering to finally make the pilgrim's dream a reality.
The grand opening of the Cape Cod Canal was July 29, 1914. Belmont's canal was expensive for mariners. As much as $16.00 for a trip by schooner, a considerable amount in those days. This, along with the narrow 100 foot width and shallow depth of the canal made many mariners continue to use the routes around the cape. As a result, tolls did not live up to expectations and the Cape Cod Canal became a losing proposition.
As a result, the Cape Cod Canal was purchased by the U.S. Government on March 30, 1928. The waterway was widened and deepened to nearly 500 feet wide and 32 feet deep, removing 30 million cubic yards of earth. All this work employed a total of 1400 men during the Great Depression. By 1940 the completed Cape Cod Canal represented the widest sea-level canal in the world. Ship traffic could safely transit the waterway and now over 20,000 vessels of all types use the Canal annually.
U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
An interesting item from the Wikipedia
A German U-boat, the U-156, surfaced three miles off Orleans, on July 21, 1918 and shelled the tug Perth Amboy and her string of four barges. The Director General of the United States Railroad Administration took over jurisdiction and operation of the canal four days later under a presidential proclamation.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers re-dredged the channel to 25 feet deep while it remained under government control until 1920. In 1928, the government purchased the canal for use as a free public waterway. The purchase price was $11,400,000, and $21,000,000 was spent between 1935 to 1940 increasing the canal's width to 480 feet, and its depth to 32 feet. As a result, the canal became the widest sea level canal in the world. The southern entrance to the canal was rebuilt for direct access from Buzzards Bay rather than through Phinney Harbor.
During World War II, shipping again used the canal to avoid U-boats patrolling offshore. The canal was protected from coastal batteries at Sagamore Hill Military Reservation. The Mystic Steamship Company's collier Stephen R. Jones was grounded and sank in the canal on June 28, 1942. Shipping was routed around Cape Cod, and the SS Alexander Macomb was torpedoed on July 3 with the loss of 10 lives. The canal reopened on July 31, after the wrecked Stephen R. Jones was removed with the help of 17 tons of dynamite.
Cape Cod Canal
The coordinates are at the Cape Cod Railroad Bridge in Buzzards Bay where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains a recreation area, and trails begin along the northern border of the canal.