Cape Cod Canal Widening - Bourne MA

City:: Bourne, MA
Site Type:: Infrastructure and Utilities, Water Supply, Maritime: Harbors, Ports & Lighthouses
New Deal Agencies:: Works Progress Administration (WPA), Federal & Military Operations, Public Works Funding, Work Relief Programs, Army Corps of Engineers, Public Works Administration (PWA)
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Marked:: Unknown
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Cape Cod Canal is an artificial waterway traversing the narrow neck of land that joins Cape Cod to mainland Massachusetts. First constructed in the early 20th century, the canal was widened during the New Deal. That work was part of a much larger project that included three new bridges across the canal (Short & Stanley-Brown 1939)

The project was overseen by the US Army Corps of Engineers and funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA), circa 1933-35. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) came in later to do work on the banks, the nature of which is not specified in the WPA work order.

A WPA Project card gives this information:
“Make improvements along the banks of the Cape Cod Canal”
Official Project Number: 765‐14‐2‐23
Total project cost: $53,068.00
Sponsor: District Engineer, U.S. Corps of Engineers, U.S. War Department

Source notes

Massachusetts Historical Commission Reconnaissance Survey Town Report for Bourne

Nationwide Context, Inventory, and Heritage Assessment of Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps Resources on Department of Defense Installations, July 2009 (page C-71).

C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown. Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration. (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1939).

Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on February 13, 2018.
Additional contributions by Richard Walker.