The Cape Cod Canal was opened with much fanfare on July 29, 1914, a toll waterway put into operation less than three weeks before the Panama Canal opened. It bore only a slight resemblance to the canal we know today. The idea of a canal to connect Cape Cod Bay with Buzzards Bay had first been proposed by the Pilgrims, and ill-fated attempts at construction had been tried several times.
While the completed canal cut transit times around the Cape, at just 15 feet deep it could accommodate only smaller vessels. Work continued to deepen the expanse, but without the larger ships as customers, the toll operation was a financial failure. Accidents due to dangerous currents and the narrow openings of the original bridges further scared off traffic, and it was sold to the Federal Government in 1928.