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When the Cape Cod Canal Was Begun

The first shovelful of earth to start the making of Cape Cod Canal was dug on June 29, 1904. With that shovelful was inaugurated one of the most important coastal developments ever undertaken in the United States.

The project was not a public one, but a private enterprise. This would account for the presence and action of August Belmont, on that memorable day. Schooners in Plymouth harbor supplied scows with granite, which the scows carried to the forming breakwater, one-half mile long, outside Sandwich harbor. The busy scene also included six dredges, and a bridge gang at work on the steel draw at Buzzards Bay station. Eventually, the Canal was bought by the United States Government, and it is operated by the Government to this day.

Ships plying between Boston and northern ports and New York save from seventy to one hundred fifty miles over the old and very dangerous route round the Cape.

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