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101
THE CAPE COD CANAL
Thomas Machin, an engineer
for the Continental army, who
was sent out to assess the
feasibility of the canal. After
the survey was conducted it
was pronounced practical and
that it should be built.
Over the next century, various
individuals and groups did their
own surveys, and some were
even granted permission to
begin construction of the canal.
All of those that attempted to
build it were either forced to
stop because they ran out of
money, or they were completely
overwhelmed by the enormous
scale of this project. It was
not until 1904 that a wealthy
financier, August Belmont II,
became interested in the
project. He had his own engi-
neer survey the land, and after
a favorable report, began
construction in 1909. August
himself was the first to take
a shovelful of earth out of the
ground in Bournedale to signify
the beginning of construction;
he then promised that he would
not stop construction of the
Cape Cod Canal until the very
last bit of earth was dug. The
construction would consist of
dredges (apparatus for bringing
up objects or mud from a river
or seabed by scooping or
dragging) that would dig
out the land between the
two rivers and work their way
in to meet in the middle.
Throughout the construction,
about 26 different dredges
were used. The dredges ran
into issues that would
ultimately slow down the
workflow and bring them
behind schedule for their
1913 opening: the team ran
into enormous boulders left
behind when when glaciers
originally formed Cape years
ago. To fix this problem,
divers were sent under water
to blow up the boulders with
Steamshovels
...
and
men
with
shovels
...
excavate
the
Canal.
