| Cape
Cod is an arm-shaped peninsula with many villages, forming the Easternmost portion of the
commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States. It is
coextensive with Barnstable County. Although Cape Cod was originally
connected to the mainland, the Cape Cod Canal, completed in 1914,
effectively transformed this popular destination into a large island.
The Upper Cape is the section of Cape Cod closest to the mainland. This
portion of the Cape includes the towns of Bourne,Wareham, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich.
While part of the town of Barnstable is located on the Upper Cape, it is
commonly considered to be in the Mid-Cape area. Falmouth is the home
of the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and several other
research organizations. Falmouth is also the most-used connection to Martha's
Vineyard via ferry. Falmouth is also composed of several villages
including Woods Hole, Quissett, West Falmouth, North Falmouth, Hatchville,
East Falmouth, Teaticket, and Waquoit. The Mid-Cape includes the towns of
Barnstable, Dennis and Yarmouth. There are seven villages in Barnstable:
Barnstable, Centerville, Cotuit, Hyannis, Marstons Mills, Osterville, and
West Barnstable. There are many beautiful beaches in the Mid-Cape area,
including Kalmus Beach in Hyannis, which gets its name from one of the
inventors of Technicolor, Herbert Kalmus. This popular windsurfing
destination was bequeathed to the town of Barnstable by Dr. Kalmus on
condition that it not be developed, possibly one of the first instances of
open-space preservation in the US. The "Lower Cape" is the narrower portion of the cape, which bends sharply to the north. This section includes the towns of Brewster, Chatham, Harwich, Orleans. The Outer Cape with the towns of Eastham, Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet. This area is home to some of the top ranked beaches in America namely the Coast Guard, and Nauset beaches in Eastham, and is where the Pilgrims first landed regardless of the popular myth of Plymouth Rock. The large area of water enclosed by Cape Cod and the mainland seacoast to the north is Cape Cod Bay; west of Cape Cod is Buzzards Bay. To the south lie Nantucket sound; Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard (both large islands); and the mostly-privately-owned Elizabeth Islands in the town of Gosnold, of which the most populated is Cuttyhunk. Cape Cod is connected to the mainland by a pair of canal-spanning highway bridges from Bourne and Sagamore that were constructed in the 1930s, and a vertical-lift railroad bridge. The entire Cape is roughly bisected by U.S. Route 6, locally known as the Mid-Cape Highway, which runs as a four- and then two-lane freeway between Sandwich and Orleans and then as a surface street to Provincetown. Commercial air service to Cape Cod occurs at Barnstable Municipal Airport and Provincetown Municipal Airport. |
Copyright 2006 Internet Brands, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".