Bourne Recreation
|
|
|
Bourne Beaches
|
| Bourne has nine
public beaches, but vehicles must have resident stickers to park.
Vacationers can obtain a beach pass by showing a 30-day lease to the
Department of Natural Resources. Walk-on use by non-residents is allowed
so visitors want to check hotel and rental accommodations for proximity
to the beach. |
| |
|
Barlows Landing
Electric Avenue
Gray Gables
Hen Cove
Monument Beach
Picture Lake
Queen Sewell
Sagamore
Squeteague
|
| |
|
Cape Cod Canal |
|
The son of a French
businessman who prospered in America and served as minister to The
Hague under U.S. President Franklin Pierce, New Yorker August Perry
Belmont Jr. had ties to the Cape through his mother, Caroline
Slidell Perry, whose family came from Bourne.
Belmont saw
opportunity where others saw disaster. The entrepreneur, who also
helped start New York City’s subway system, established the Boston,
Cape Cod and New York Canal Co. and work began on the canal in May
1909. The next three years saw the completion of the Buzzards Bay
Railroad, Bourne and Sagamore bridges. The canal opened to traffic
on July 29, 1914 with a Parade of Ships, where attendees included
former U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then assistant
secretary of the Navy. Belmont achieved his goal of finishing work
before the Panama Canal, by 17 days.
While Belmont’s
private toll canal made $51 in its first day of business, it
wouldn’t be enough. Money and safety problems plagued the waterway
along with World War I. On July 22, 1918, a German submarine fired
on an American tugboat off Nauset Beach, prompting U.S. President
Woodrow Wilson to order the Federal Railroad Administration to take
over the canal’s operation. Belmont later resumed operation of the
canal, but sold it to the federal government in March 1928 for $11.5
million.
The Army Corps of
Engineers were given control and rebuilt the bridges, deepened the
waterways and widened the canal walls to allow the barges and large
ships that pedestrians, runners and bicyclists now marvel at from
the paved paths.
Today, the canal is
480 feet wide, 32 feet deep with a 17.4 mile long channel. It cuts
across 7.8 miles of land and has a 6.5-mile walkway on each side.
|
|
|
|
Bourne Camping
|
|
Bayview Camp Ground
260 MacArthur
Boulevard
508-759-7610
Bourne Scenic Park
370 Scenic Highway,
Buzzards Bay
508-795-7873
|
|
|
|
