NARRATOR: A battle against
the ferocious Atlantic, safe passage through treacherous
waters, an engineering feat that many believed impossible. Now, the Cape Cod Canal
on "Modern Marvels." Cape Cod is a 70-mile long
finger of land steeped in history and romance. But the waters around the Cape
are home to violent storms, dense fogs, and shifting sands. For hundreds of years, they
were a Mariner's nightmare. Throughout America's
short Maritime history, thousands of ships
sank, foundered, or were destroyed on the shoals
and rocky shores of Cape Cod. But today, ships no
longer have to brave these treacherous waters, thanks
to the world's widest sea level canal, spanning 480 feet
from shore to shore, the Cape Cod Canal. There are no locks in
the 17.4-mile canal. But there are natural obstacles
that have, at times, proven disastrous. But without the canal,
Maritime traffic would be tremendously altered. The canal saves on the
order of 150 miles, 130 miles, depending on which track
a-- a vessel would take. But more important
than the mileage, I think, is the
safety of the canal. NARRATOR: The canal
wasn't a luxury. It was a necessity. Built for two-way
traffic, the canal is composed of a land cut
that is seven miles long, with open water
channels on either end. One channel extends into
Buzzards Bay and the other into Cape Cod Bay. Operated and maintained by the
US Army Corps of Engineers, the Cape Cod Canal uses a
state of the art marine traffic control system, monitoring
an average of 20,000 vessels each year. Commercial and private
vessels up to 825 feet long use the canal 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week. Any vessel longer than 825 feet
would have extreme difficulty maneuvering inside the
two-way traffic land cut and isn't allowed
inside the canal. Since the canal essentially
made Cape Cod an island, three bridges were
built to span the Canal and link Cape Cod to the rest
of Massachusetts, two highway bridges, the Sagamore Bridge and
Bourne Bridge, and the Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge. More than 36 million vehicles
pass over the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges every year. The Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge
was the longest vertical lift bridge in the world at the
time of its construction. Now used mostly for hauling
refuse off the Cape, the railroad in Buzzards
Bay Railroad Bridge are still vital to Cape
Cod's infrastructure. Although fewer than five
operators man the Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge, an average
of 46 Army Corps of Engineers employees work on the canal. From marine traffic control
to bridge maintenance to educational services
for the community, the Army Corps of Engineers has
had stewardship of the Canal for over three-quarters
of a century. FREDERIC C. DANHOUSER
(VOICEOVER): We get all kinds of
shipping traffic. We have a large number
of tugs and barges that come through the canal,
as well as passenger vessels, ball-carrying ships, ships that
might carry coal or cement, tankers, of course. The largest product that
comes through the Canal are oil petrochemical products. NARRATOR: In the Marine
Traffic Control Center located in Buzzards Bay, all commercial
vessels and private vessels 65 feet or larger are
tracked and monitored. There are safety issues in the
Canal, the current in the Canal being the primary concern. Current can run as
much as 5.2 knots. And it changes direction
every six hours with the tide. NARRATOR: The ocean's tides, the
cyclical changes in sea level caused by the sun's and
moon's gravitational pulls, have a profound
influence on the Canal. FREDERIC C. DANHOUSER
(VOICEOVER): The current in the Canal is
caused by two different tides cycles, one north of the
Cape and the other south of the Cape. The rise and fall of the
tide south of the Cape is only four feet. And the rise and fall of
the tide North of the Cape is nine feet. NARRATOR: The
five-foot difference in tide levels on
opposite ends of the canal generates a swift current. As the rising water
flows downhill, the current then reverses
direction as the Cape's tide cycle continues. Sophisticated
hardware and software monitor vessel movement and
environmental conditions. This is environmental data
at the five reporting stations, namely the wind speed, the
wind direction, and the state of the tide, which is critical
for the deep draft vessels who use that canal. We monitor the
tides 24 hours a day in order to allow deep
draft vessels to go through. NARRATOR: The critical function
of the Marine Traffic Control station is to maintain
a safe waterway for both the deep draft
commercial vessels and the private
recreational vessels. As you can see, we're tracking
two westbound vessels and one eastbound vessel. Tracking number 213, his
course is 270 degrees true. He-- he's going west. And his speed is seven knots. I'll click on the west bounder
and we'll find that the vessels will meet in 48 minutes. They'll meet between
the two highway bridges. NARRATOR: Deep draft vessels
can't meet each other under any of the bridges. Marine traffic control must
calculate the vessels' speeds and communicate where on the
canal the vessels can meet. Control on 14. NARRATOR: On the canal
itself, Army Corps patrol boats police
the waterway, ready to assist any
vessel and maintain a safe marine environment. This boat has two
435-horsepower Caterpillar diesels. And the other two patrol boats
have two 430-horsepower Cummins diesels. It's pretty significant power. This is a 40 footer. The other two are 41's. These boats, every now and
then, have kept tugging barges from hitting the riprap or
turn the tug and barge around in here. So they have pretty
good horsepower for a boat their size. Anything that loses power or
becomes disabled in the canal, we consider an emergency. We get there as quick as we can. There could be a large ship
coming around the bend. There could be a tug and
barge coming around the bend. With the way the current
runs, if we don't get to them quickly, they're
going to be aground or they're going to be hitting
one of the bridge abutments. NARRATOR: Although
patrol boats are able to assist large
commercial craft, many private boats become
distressed in the canal. The patrol boats
handle about 200-- well, last year they handled
228 small boat assistance cases. And around 200 is the normal. NARRATOR: Marine Operations
also works closely with the Bay Colony railroad operators on
one of the more unique elements of the canal, the vertical
lift railroad bridge. Most bridges of this
type would normally be in a down position
for railroad traffic. However, being the
major waterway, the bridge is always
left in the up position. NARRATOR: Larry Genander has
worked as one of the railroad bridge operators for 23 years. When the bridge
needs to move, his is the voice that
makes the first call. Traffic control. We're ready to make
that move to check that G bank with a PLC. OK, Larry. LARRY GENANDER
(VOICEOVER): Whether it's a train or whether
it's maintenance moves, we call the Army Corps of
Engineers Marine Traffic Control Center. And the officer in
charge, in turn, lets us know whether we can
bring the bridge down or not. I have one night eight
westbound fishing vessel. As soon as he clears, I'll have
the boat out, we'll drop it. NARRATOR: When Marine
Traffic Control gives the OK, a patrol boat is sent out on the
up current side of the bridge to stop any vessel traffic. LARRY GENANDER (VOICEOVER):
The span is 544 feet. The span weighs 2,200 ton. We also have counterweights
on the north and south sides that weigh 1,100 ton each, which
gives you a balance in weight. Then, with our total
movement, we also have cables. There is 40 cables on the north
side, 40 on the south side. And with those moving as
well, we're moving, actually, around 4,800 tons. [horn] NARRATOR: It takes approximately
2 and a half minutes to lower the bridge
from its home 135 feet above mean high tide. Vessels on the Canal
must stem the tide and wait for the patrol boat
to give the OK for passage. There are two sets of
16-foot diameter sheaves, 4 in each tower. Several small
motors in each tower initiate the movement of the
sheaves, which in turn move the counterweights
and the bridge span. This is the machinery room. And what we have here
that my hand is on is actually a, as it
says, a cooling fan for the 200-horsepower motor,
which is Motor A. This motor is a 200-horsepower DC motor. And we have our B motor, which
is also a 200-horsepower motor. The south tower looks exactly
like this with two more motors. And there would
be C and D motors. NARRATOR: The Bay Colony
railroad train typically crosses the bridge
four times a day. When the train has completed its
crossing, usually 20 minutes, the bridge operator
raises the bridge and then lets Marine Traffic
Control know when the bridge span is locked in
its up position. Vessel traffic can once again
proceed under the bridge. But the workings of this
Canal and its bridges have not always been
so finely tuned. The evolution of the Canal was
long, painful, and dangerous. The Sagamore and Bourne
Bridges see a combined total of approximately 70,000
daily trips in winter. During the summer, the
traffic nearly doubles, with over 130,000 daily trips. Cape Cod was formed thousands of
years ago by Ice Age glaciers. It's home to fierce
storms, deadly ice floes, and hidden shoals. The great New England Hurricane
of 1938 killed nearly 700. Top winds were clocked
at 183 miles per hour, but it wasn't a unique event. Hurricanes have lashed
this area every few years. But a possible safe haven
for ships was always nearby. At the entrance to the
Cape Cod peninsula, a narrow isthmus separated
two tidal rivers. On the northeast
side of the isthmus, there was a vast salt marsh,
where the Scusset River flowed through. On the Southwest side,
the Monument River flowed inland nearly
meeting the Scusset River. Between the two rivers
was approximately a one-mile stretch of dry land. Captain Myles Standish
of the Plymouth Colony first introduced
the idea for a canal to cut across the Cape
Cod isthmus in 1623, to facilitate trade between
the Native American Indians and the burgeoning colonies. The colonists' survival
depended on their relationship with the Native
American Indians. Standish knew the Indians
walked their boats across the narrow isthmus. He wanted a water crossing. But with no way to implement
such an undertaking, the idea of building a canal
was abandoned, until 1776, when George Washington
envisioned to secure route for his Navy
battling the British. The British Navy commanded
the waters off the Cape, thus blockading the small
continental Navy from passing. Washington's Navy moved
goods and men by foot over the isthmus to
bypass the British Navy. But another century would pass
before the canal Washington desired became a reality. As the country grew,
shipping increased each year between the major ports
of Boston and New York. We had all sorts of products
in this country that were being shipped by a huge coastal
industry that grew rapidly after the Civil War. And they would run across
surging tides and ice floes that were very dangerous. DONALD JERRY ELLIS (VOICEOVER):
Approximately 1,100 ships foundered and were lost. Of this 1,100 ships,
approximately 200 were complete losses. And there were about
150 lives lost. NARRATOR: As the loss of
life and cargo increased, so did attempts at building
a canal on the Cape. With the success of the
Erie Canal in the North, nearly half a dozen companies
tried but failed to conquer the small Cape Cod isthmus. It wasn't until
1909 that technology and entrepreneurship, in the
form of August Belmont Jr., caught up with the notion
of building a canal. August Belmont was
born on Cape Cod and became famous for financing
the first subway in New York City, completed in 1904. He was ready for
his next project. He purchased a
struggling company trying to build a canal on
Cape Cod, the Boston Cape Cod and New York Canal Company. He always said he would
complete the Canal at any cost. And it was to protect Mariners. Interestingly enough, commerce
was always the last thing he spoke about. It was always protection of
the seamen, navigational rights for the military,
and then commerce. NARRATOR: Belmont
immediately hired the renowned civil
engineer William Barclay Parsons to be his chief
engineer on the project. He had been one of those
commissioned by Theodore Roosevelt, originally
to go down to survey the route of the Panama Canal. But he had helped August
Belmont build the Fourth Avenue, the first subway in New York. And so he was a friend
and also a professional. He was hired in 1905 to be
in charge of the building of the Cape Cod Canal. NARRATOR: Construction
began in ceremonial fashion on June 22nd, 1909. Few believed this latest attempt
at a canal would be successful. However, Belmont promised
not to desert the task until the last
shovelful has been dug. First, Parsons would try
to construct a breakwater off the Eastern end of what
would become the Canal. If he failed here, the Canal
would likely be doomed, as sand caught in the
constantly moving currents would immediately fill
any dredged channel. He used schooners
to ship millions of tons of granite boulders from
Maine to the breakwater site. He wouldn't stop until his
breakwater was 40-feet deep, 3,000-feet long, and rose
8 feet above high tide. It would take years. At the opposite end of the
isthmus, in Buzzards Bay, dredges worked on the
westerly approach. The recent Industrial
Revolution had mechanized the ancient
skill of dredging. The dredges at Parsons'
disposal were much more powerful than any that had come before. First dredge to
arrive was the Kennedy. It arrived at the west end. And it was a ladder-type dredge. Now, a ladder-type dredge
looks like a conveyor belt with little buckets on it. It goes in and it
digs away, digs away. And it expels the material
to the rear onto a scow, the scow takes it away. NARRATOR: Parsons'
plan for dredging would follow the
paths of the rivers, simultaneously dredging
from the east and west ends of the isthmus until
the dredges' presumed meeting in the middle. Although the plan
was sound, Parsons was about to face an
enormous problem, courtesy of the last Ice Age. ROBERT H. FARSON (VOICEOVER):
From the beginning, Parsons knew that Cape
Cod was a glacial moraine, a glacial dump, if you will. So he ran test
borings, lots of them. And they went down 40,
50 feet and never fo-- struck any boulders. But oh did they find them when
the dredges started digging. NARRATOR: The only solution was
to employ a new breed of worker to do a new kind of job,
an extremely dangerous job. Dredging was halted so
underwater divers could dynamite the obstruction. The 1820s had opened the
seas to work and exploration with the development of diving
pumps and underwater helmets. The equipment was
heavy and airflow had to be carefully monitored. Laboring for prolonged
periods underwater was more perilous than any
other work on the canal. DONALD JERRY ELLIS
(VOICEOVER): Some of the rock at the west
end exceeded 100 tons. The diving profession
at that time wasn't what we would consider
today to be the safest. The air pumps usually
were run by hand. They were on leaky scows. The divers were really brave. And they'd have to go down
at the very murky water. And they would blast anywhere
from 7 and a half pounds to 200 pounds of dynamite. It was very, very dangerous. Once they'd set the
charge and have it ready, they'd have to get
back up on the boat, back the boat off, blast. Once it's blasted, they'd
have to go back down again to survey to see where
they'd have to dig. And this became
extremely time-consuming. NARRATOR: Although dredging
was severely delayed, work on the three bridges
that Belmont was obligated to build as part of his canal
charter progressed rapidly. There would be two highway
bridges, the Bourne Bridge and Sagamore Bridge. They would combine
space for a trolley line and, the dominant
form of transportation at the time, horse and carriage. Both highway bridges
would incorporate two 80-foot cantilever spans
constructed of wood and steel. Each was completed
in less than a year. Parsons decided on
a different style for the third bridge,
a railroad bridge. It would only have
a single span. And that railroad bridge
had a single counterweight, which was on the north side. It was a bascule-type bridge. And so it would just
open and close like that. NARRATOR: By 1912, the
bridges were finished, but the canal was not. Drastically behind schedule,
Belmont and Parsons implemented a new plan
to dig in the dry, in the unexcavated center
of the planned canal route. They moved in steam shovels,
similar to those being used in the Panama
Canal excavation, and set up a narrow gauge
railroad to haul the debris away. Belmont's desire to get
the job done at any cost resulted in his contracting
for two specially-built dipper dredges, to be assembled
on site at the west end and the east end of the canal. They were special,
because, at the time, they were the biggest
dredgers in the country. These dredgers were monsters. They had 13 steam engines
on each one of them. They had a dipper dredge that
was almost twice the size of any dipper dredge
that was operating in the canal at that time. NARRATOR: The two behemoths
began digging toward each other in 1912. Accompanied by the trusty
Kennedy ladder dredge and many smaller dipper dredges,
Belmont was nearing his goal. There were
approximately 26 dredges worked from the time of the
first dredge that started to work around 1908, til the
last dredge pulled out of here in 1916. NARRATOR: By the spring of 1914,
only one sandy stretch of land separated the tidal rivers. Workers dug through the sand
and constructed a wooden dike to keep the water separated. In a ceremonial
blending of the waters, Belmont and Parsons shook
hands, lifted the dike's gate, and let the torrential
waters flood the canal area. Dredges would soon finish the
job of widening and deepening the final stretch of land. And on July 29th, 1914,
the Cape Cod Canal opened with great fanfare. 20 million cubic yards of
material had been removed. And Cape Cod had
become an island. The canal had cost
Belmont $16 million. His plan was to charge tolls
for all vessels using the canal. With schooner barges carrying
coal and large passenger steamships coming in droves,
he was certain his canal would be a financial success. However, it soon became clear
that the canal was too small. Although Parsons had
conducted extensive studies, the canal depth of 25
feet in width of 140 feet proved to be inadequate. There wasn't enough room in the
canal for vessels to maneuver. Furthermore, the narrow width
actually increased the velocity of the current. DONALD JERRY ELLIS
(VOICEOVER): One of the problems was the cross
rips and when the tide changed. If a pilot who was captaining
the ship through the canal wasn't on his game, he
would find that he'd be into the shore very quickly. SAMANTHA A. MIRABELLA
(VOICEOVER): It was difficult to navigate. The approach channel
through Buzzards Bay took a series of sharp
turns and, in combination with the strong currents,
made many Mariners weary. NARRATOR: The shipwrecks
started to accumulate. Vessels couldn't navigate
the strong current and would crash into one of
the bridges or run aground on the riprap, erosion
protection rock that lines the shores. Each time there was
a wreck, the canal had to close to traffic,
which meant a loss of revenue and additional trepidation
in ship captains. Ships were soon taking chances
with the old sea route, around the Cape, instead
of paying the toll and risking the
unpredictable Canal. Belmont's Grand Canal,
one which no one else had been able to build, was
a financial failure. Could Belmont find a way to
get off his sinking ship? Cape Cod canal visionary
August Belmont JR. built Belmont Park Racetrack,
home to the Belmont Stakes, and helped build two of
America's Cup winning yachts. Today's Cape Cod Canal is far
different than the one August Belmont built a century ago. His canal was plagued by racing
tidal surges and shipwrecks. Although he periodically
dredged the Canal, it was fundamentally flawed. Up until his death
in 1924, Belmont tried to rid himself
of the Canal, which had proven to be his money pit. Belmont's canal was
an economic failure. The amount of traffic
they saw in the canal was much less than what
investors had anticipated. NARRATOR: There
was only one party interested in
purchasing the Canal. In March of 1928,
the Canal was finally sold to the federal
government for $11.4 million, $4.6 million less than what
it cost Belmont to build. Weeks later, Congress
handed the Cape Cod Canal over to the US Army
Corps of Engineers to operate and improve. Passage would be free
to the Maritime public. FRAN DONOVAN (VOICEOVER):
A lot of people wonder why the Corps of
Engineers is here at the Canal. The Corps of
Engineers, nationwide, has a civil works function,
where we perform work, as authorized by Congress. And that's-- that's how the
Corps got here to the Canal. Congress made the decision to
purchase the-- the then private Canal and turn it into
a viable waterway. NARRATOR: The Corps worked
with shipping companies, other Maritime users of the
canal, and local businesses to discern the major problems
that plagued the passage. DONALD JERRY ELLIS (VOICEOVER):
They then went forward with a whole series of surveys. What they could do to improve
the condition of the canal? what they could do to improve
the navigability of the Canal, the safety requirements? And what did they want the
Canal to ultimately be? NARRATOR: All the
problems the canal had came down to one cause,
it was just too small. As the Army Corps of
Engineers was drawing up plans for this major
waterway project, FDR's New Deal gave it
the push that it needed. In December, 1933,
the federal government allotted nearly $6
million to widen the canal and build three bigger
and better bridges. Belmont's bridges would simply
be obstacles in a wider canal. Government decided, we will
make a WPA project, a Federal Work Project, out of this. And they said, we will make
this into a modern canal. It meant that 400 local
men, heads of households, they had to be married
men with families, were hired by the WPA. And it made it so that,
if you wanted a job, you could get a job. The pay wasn't great, but
at least you were working. And it added to the economy
of the Commonwealth. NARRATOR: First
order of business was to begin work
on the bridges. The old bridges
were still open and still operating for the
railroad and the two highway bridges, until the new
bridges were completed. NARRATOR: While the old
bridges were drawbridge style, the two new highway
bridges were both planned to be fixed bridges. They would be designed to
provide enough clearance for the tallest of
ocean-going vessels. Simultaneous construction began
on all three bridges in 1933. With a dedicated workforce,
the Sagamore and Bourne Bridge construction moved swiftly. The differences between
the two highway bridges are-- are just the length
of the approach bends. Most people think of
them as being identical. But the Bourne Bridge is longer
than the Sagamore Bridge. NARRATOR: The Bourne
bridge is 2,384 feet long. And the Sagamore
is 1,408 feet long. The highway bridges
are elevated in design. They allow for a clearance
of 135 feet from the bottom of the bridge, the top of
the water, at mean high tide. NARRATOR: The engineers
made the new bridges four lanes wide, instead of two,
and 40 feet from curb to curb, more than 10 feet wider
than Belmont's bridges. Workers completed the
Bourne and Sagamore Bridges just two years after the
start of construction. But one bridge
remained to be built. DONALD JERRY ELLIS
(VOICEOVER): The most difficult was to build the railway bridge. They had to go in and
engineer the whole project, so that everything went
together like a fine geared, meshed machine. The original bascule
railroad bridge was too small to
span the new canal. It was also built to remain
in the lowered position, until a boat needed to pass. This would impede the goal
of the new Canal, which was to always have
an open waterway. So the Army Corps plans
called for the construction of a vertical lift
railroad bridge, meaning the entire center span
could be raised and lowered as needed. This ambitious
proposition gave rise to the longest vertical lift
railroad bridge in the world at the time. The movable bridge span would
cover a distance of 544 feet. Such a large movable span meant
that they could link the two sides of the proposed
500-foot wide Canal. The way the railroad
bridge was constructed, as with all the bridges
along the Canal, there were two teams, one
team on the mainland side and one team on the cape side. And they would built
simultaneously and then meet in the middle, which is
an amazing engineering feat. NARRATOR: This method of
construction allowed the Canal to stay open for vessel traffic
and required most of the work to be done on dry land. Foundation work began with
the building of cofferdams. This would allow a dry work site
for construction of the bridge piers. They had to go down 62
feet below sea level to dig. But they ran into the
exact same problems that August Belmont and
Parsons had run into, boulders. NARRATOR: Engineers suggested
an ingenious solution to deal with boulders. Revised designs called
for 324 oak piles, 38 to 40-feet long and capable
of burying 30 tons each. These piles were
driven into the ground, surrounded by the cofferdams,
until they hit boulders. An average distance of 45
feet below mean sea level. The coffer dams were then
filled with concrete. And the channel peers
were subsequently built on top of these
sturdy pier bases. DONALD JERRY ELLIS (VOICEOVER):
This was a monumental task. And it was beautifully done. They had to go down to this
great depth with the piers, because of the weight, not
only of the railway tracks, but of the superstructure
that was there. NARRATOR: This substructure was
completed on the Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge
in January, 1935. That same year in March, work
began on the superstructure, the steel work of the bridge. Workers used over 4,000 tons of
steel and approximately 110,000 steel rivets in
constructing the bridge. Now, the Corps had a problem. It needed to close the
Canal during construction of the bridge span,
but wanted to minimize the time of the closure. Though not successful, the
Canal was still a benefit to Mariners. The Army Corps would build
the bridge span in sections, then rapidly assemble them. Engineers worked with 18
panels divided into 3 sections. At roadway level, workers
assembled one section of six panels from the north
tower, then another section of six panels from the south. The third section,
or midsection, linked the other two and
completed the bridge. This process took 90 workers
only five days to complete. With their fingers crossed,
engineers successfully raised the center span of the
world's widest vertical lift bridge on September 16th, 1935. Unlike most railroad bridges,
the span here at the Canal is kept in the raised position. Again, that's because navigation
has the right of away. NARRATOR: With a
crew of five workers, the four motors triggered
the movement of the sheaves, activating the movement
of the two counterweights. And the span was successfully
lowered for the first train crossing in December, 1935. Now began the task of
widening the canal. It was up to the engineers to
harness the forces of the tides and create a safe waterway
for all types of vessels. But could they
truly improve upon Belmont's and Parsons' efforts? Some locals wanted
the canal to be filled in when the Army Corps of
Engineers took it over in 1928. The Big Ditch, as
some called it, actually split the
town of Bourne in half. The uncompromising
Atlantic around Cape Cod has garnered the
respect of Mariners since the first vessels
sailed her waters. Both the Gulf Stream
and the Labrador Current run nearby and
affect ocean waters that swirl around the Cape. These currents, combined with
the contrasting tide levels on opposite ends of the canal,
create the rapid flow of water that alternates direction
with each new tide. The current will run to
the west for six hours. And then, it will
go into slack water. And we have like 15, 20
minutes of slack water, where the current isn't
really moving at all. And then, the current
changes direction and it will run the other
direction for six hours. So every day, there's two east
currents, two west currents. NARRATOR: In the
1930s, engineers faced the daunting challenge
of transforming this unusual and potentially
hazardous waterway into a safe and navigable canal. One possibility
was to build locks, which had proven successful
in the massive Panama Canal project. Navigation locks are gated
enclosures that vessels enter. They then fill with
water so that the vessel may pass from level to level. Thus, engineers can
still raging currents. Parsons said that it
would never need locks. Now, you have to remember
that Parsons also had said at Panama,
you don't need locks. One of the primary reasons was
it would slow transportation through the Canal. ROBERT H. FARSON (VOICEOVER):
The very simple reason for not building locks
was that they wanted to keep this as an open seaway. The experience in the north
with canals, all sorts of canals in Pennsylvania, Virginia,
and New York state, like the Erie
Canal and so forth, was that all these many canals
that we had and many here in Massachusetts too would
freeze in the wintertime. NARRATOR: The US Army
Corps of Engineers hired the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology to build a model of the canal
with modifiable dimensions. Scientists and engineers studied
tides and water levels created by an electrical
water control system. The hydraulic data provided the
Army Corps with solid facts, on which to determine the
dimensions of the Canal. The MIT data also illuminated
serious cross current and eddy conditions in the
approach channel within Buzzards Bay that could
create desperate conditions for ocean vessels. Engineers decided to
build dikes, composed of dredged material, along the
approach to the Buzzards Bay entrance of the Canal. Because dikes are barriers
built to redirect water, they would help reduce
the swift current and lessen sand buildup. The new dikes would also
eliminate a few very sharp turns in Buzzards Bay
that had proven disastrous in Belmont's Canal. With modern dredging
equipment and modern dynamiting equipment, they made
a straight channel into the west end of the Canal. They chopped Hog
Island, which was right in the middle of the entrance
in Buzzards Bay, right in half. NARRATOR: The Army Corps began
a massive dredging operation to widen, deepen, and
adjust the entire Canal and its approaches. Engineers also needed to prevent
the sandy banks of the Canal from eroding. Riprap was placed on both sides
of the seven-mile land cut. Riprap lines the
sides of the canal. And it's granite rock that's
placed along the banks. And it's placed there
to keep wakes of vessels from washing the banks out. And also, the strong current
from making the banks a road. SAMANTHA A. MIRABELLA
(VOICEOVER): About 54 million cubic yards
of material were removed for the Cape Cod Canal. And about 15 million
cubic yards of that was during Belmont's
Canal and the rest during the reconstruction. NARRATOR: The entire restoration
of the canal, including the construction of
the three new bridges, took only seven years. Completed in 1940, the
new and improved canal was to become a saving grace
to the Maritime community, especially the military
preparing for an impending war. During World War II, the US
Navy found the Cape Cod Canal in a central passage, in which
to skirt the lingering enemy submarines positioned
off the eastern seaboard. Convoys of military vessels
from New York carrying troops and supplies moved
through the canal. Vessels would anchor
in Buzzards Bay, awaiting the OK to pass through. The Cape Cod canal made a
major reputation for itself with the government
forces fighting the war. Because what we had at Buzzards
Bay was a staging area. And the staging area was
protected by minefields, to make sure that German
submarines couldn't get through, because the great
threat in the oceans, of course, was the
German undersea boats. NARRATOR: Over the
next seven decades, the Canal would endure
wars, weather, and a growing population. It would also incorporate
burgeoning technology to remain a vital component
of Maritime transport. The Canal has successfully
stood the test of time. But will the mass
of humanity that travels over the two-highway
bridges each year and invades the
shore every season become too great a burden
for an aging infrastructure? In the first seven months after
the US entered World War II, five allied ships were
sunk by German U-boats, within 100 miles of
the Cape Cod Canal. The new millennium has
introduced new technology and new fears to almost
every facet of the country's infrastructure. The Cape Cod Canal
is no exception. Today, all three Cape
Cod Canal bridges are monitored with surveillance
cameras on a 24/7 basis, from the same control center
that monitors the Canal itself. Since 9/11, Homeland Security
has affected any product that the Corps has with
a lot of infrastructure. And of course, it's affected us. Now, we have electronic
equipment that can see places around the bridges that we
never monitored remotely before. We're keeping an eye on things
a lot closer than we ever did before, just like
everybody else is. NARRATOR: Along with
security monitoring, all three bridges are routinely
inspected and maintained. The maintenance of the
bridge is continuous. There's always something
in there that needs doing. The Bourne Bridge is,
right now, in the process of being painted. The process of
removing the paint is, you know, quite complicated. Everything has to be contained. We wind up setting a-- a whole system of containment to
stop any of the painting debris from getting to the Canal or
getting to the local grounds. Suspended from-- from
inspection cells, if have the steel decking,
it's the bottom portion of our containment. We have tarps that we stretch
along the sides of the bridge, from the curb line all the
way down to the steel decking. And that will fully
enclose the area that we will be sandblasting. NARRATOR: Total containment
of the area being sandblasted is a necessity, because the
old lead paint is toxic. This is an area of the bridge
that we haven't did any paint-- paint work on, yet, this year. And if you look over here, you
can see the-- the typical rust areas. And as I said
before, this is a-- a lead removal project. And any time you see the-- the orange here
in that paint, you know that that's
the red lead primer. And that's what-- you
have to take all that off. And the paint there is--
oh, it's pretty thick. And we've got 26
mils there of paint. So we got a lot of work to do. All right. Now, we're on the other
side of the containment, in the area of the bridge
that was painted about four or five months ago,
before the winter set in. And you can see, there's
quite a difference in the quality of the paint. NARRATOR: Painting and
maintenance on the two fixed bridges are one thing,
but on the movable span of the railroad bridge,
it's far more difficult. Within the last few years,
we've renovated this bridge. It's taken about 3 years
and $25, $26 million to renovate it. First portion of the renovation
was complete lead paint removal project. That lasted for
approximately two years. And then, we had
a mechanical rehab that lasted for about
close to a year. And during the
mechanical we had, we had the bridge out of
service, for only three months. FRAN DONOVAN (VOICEOVER): And
the reason that was difficult is that we're an active
navigation project. And we had to keep the
Canal open to navigation. So the span had to
be in the position. Now, that's just the opposite
of how the bridge was built. The bridge was built with the
span in the down position. So this time, when
we did the rehab, we had to lock the span
in the up position. Supports had to be installed
from the water piers up to the underside of the
span to hold it in place. We had to jack up
the counterweights to release the
tension on the cables and then change out the cables. While we were doing that,
we removed these sheaves up in the wheelhouse. We stripped the electrical
and mechanical guts out of the bridge, for the
first time in 70 years, and replaced it all, so that we
could minimize the-- the impact of having the bridge
out of service. LARRY DAVIS (VOICEOVER):
Right now, these bridges are over 70 years old. We expect that they'll
last at least another 50, maybe even another 70 years on. With proper
maintenance, we expect these bridges will easily
stand up to the test of time. NARRATOR: In addition to
overseeing bridge maintenance and marine traffic, the
Army Corps of Engineers operates the Cape Cod Canal as
part of a federal recreation area. There are approximately 3.5
million visitors each year, who enjoy 20 miles
of public shoreline and 1,100 acres of
adjoining public park lands. I think the Cape Cod Canal is
a great success story, not only for navigation
purposes, but because of all the other opportunities
it affords the public. We are a navigation project. And that's why we're here,
to provide that function, but we have a recreational
component of the Canal, which has developed over the years. And everything's free
here at the Canal. NARRATOR: The
survival of the Canal has been guaranteed by its many
years of irrefutable success. DONALD JERRY ELLIS (VOICEOVER):
It's really a marvel. Of all the years I've lived by
the Canal, I have to tell you, every time I see a boat,
I stop and look at it. It's an unbelievable sight. And it doesn't cost you a penny. It's the greatest free
gift that's ever been given to the people around here. NARRATOR: For nearly
a century, progress hasn't diminished the need
for a protected sea route along the eastern seaboard. The Cape Cod Canal has provided
safe passage for millions of vessels and saved
countless lives from the north Atlantic's fury. [music playing]
