The Cape Cod Canal by J. North Conway

Author:J. North Conway
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2013-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

VISIBLE PROGRESS

Despite Lockwood’s troubles, his dredging machine had made some substantial progress. By the time the dredge was forced to cease operation at its Sandwich site, nearly 800,000 cubic yards of earth had been excavated. After the dredge was towed away, there was a 7,000-foot-long ditch dug at the depth of approximately 40 feet and almost 200 feet wide. The beginning of the Cape Cod Canal was now visible to the naked eye.

Lockwood had also managed to purchase more than a thousand acres of Cape Cod property where the canal was going to be dug. It would ultimately be almost all of the land needed for the digging of the canal. However, it was not until the end of the nineteenth century (1899) that another charter of significance was issued. This time the legislature issued a charter to a group of investors calling themselves the Boston, New York and Cape Cod Canal Company. The leader of this group was Dewitt Clinton Flanagan. Flanagan’s wealth came from the manufacturing and sale of beer. His new canal company was required to make an initial investment of $200,000 in the project. The company was allowed to raise $12 million through the sale of stocks and bonds. Unlike previous charters that were granted, no construction timetable was included in the charter. This allowed Flanagan and the other owners of the Boston, New York and Cape Cod Canal Company time to raise the needed capital. It also gave Flanagan enough time to find the right person to actually complete the project. It took five years to do it, but Flanagan ultimately found the right person for the job. That person was New York financier August Perry Belmont Jr. It was Belmont who accomplished what so many had dreamed of doing before—building the Cape Cod Canal.

In Walden, Henry David Thoreau wrote:

All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours’ toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one characteristic we must possess if we are to face the future as finishers.

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