Provincetown Harbor

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Provincetown Harbor is a large natural harbor located in the town of Provincetown, Massachusetts. These ports mostly have a depth of 30 to 90 feet (9 to 27 m) and extend approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from northwest to southeast and 2 miles (3.2 km) from northeast to southwest - one large and deep basin without being dredged the necessary channels for incoming and outgoing ships.

A high green buoy east of Long Point (ie, the tip of Cape Cod) marks the entrance to Provincetown Harbor from Cape Cod Bay.

Video Provincetown Harbor

Geology

Most of the Cape Cod was created by Laurentide Glacier between 18,000 and 15,000 years ago. However, Provincetown Spit, that is, lands around Provincetown Harbor of the High Head in North Truro through all Provincetown, mostly composed of marine sediments transported from further up the coast over the last 6,000 years.

Maps Provincetown Harbor

History

A stone wall found in Provincetown in 1805 is thought to have been built by Viking Thorvald Eiriksson about 1007 AD, when according to Norse sagas, the horse of the Ericson vessel was repaired at the harbor.

Bartholomew Gosnold explored the harbor in 1602, and his colleague Gabriel Archer wrote:

"On the fifteenth day of May, we have seen again the land, which is made front, because we think an island, by reason of a great voice that appears to the west between it and the main one, as it comes to the western end, we do see we called Shoal Hope, near this cape we came to dock at fifteen fathoms, where we picked up a lot of codfish we renamed and called it Cape Cod Here we saw herring, mackerel and fish sculls other small, in great abundance.This is a low sandy shelf, but without danger... "

"Cape Cod... just a cape from tall sand dunes, overgrown with pine bushes, sickness and trash like that, but a very good harbor for all the weather.. This Cape is made by the main sea on one side, and big bay on the other side, in sickle shape... "

Pilgrim's first landing

Provincetown Harbor was an early retreat for the pilgrims who traveled at the Mayflower in 1620, before they proceeded to Plymouth, Massachusetts. Thoreau then observes that Smith's description of the harbor may be less colored by the difficulties of transoceanic difficulties than pilgrims. The Mourt relationship describes the port as:

"Nice harbor and pleasant bay, circled round, except at the entrance, which is about four miles (6 km) from land to land, to the sea with oaks, pine, juniper, sassafras, and cinnamon This is a port where 1000 sailing ships can safely rise, where we free ourselves with wood and water, and refresh our people, while our shallop is mounted on the shore of the bay, to find a place to live: there is the largest store of poultry that we've seen. "

The Mayflower held several different passengers beside the pilgrims on the first voyage of the ocean. Before arriving on the northwest bank of the harbor, Pilgrim and other settlers signed the Compact Mayflower at the harbor on November 11, 1620. Dorothy Bradford, William Bradford's first wife, was one of the first adult pilgrims to die in the new world. According to the only written explanation of his death from close by when it actually happened, he fell into the sea from the Mayflower at Provincetown Harbor on December 17, 1620 and drowned. Peregrine White, the first child born of Pilgrim in New England, was born while they were in Provincetown Harbor.

Long Point Village

From 1818 to 1850s there was a fishing village on Long Point, complete with post offices, schools, 6 windmills for salt milling, and 38 homes for about 200 adults and 60 children. When the family left in the 1850s, they hovered at a house a mile across the harbor, where many still stand today.

During the American Civil War, the military established a defensive defense artillery position at this location. Long Point Battery will be known as "Fort Useless" and "Fort Ridiculous" by the locals.

Today, Long Point is a ghost village, and nothing remains except Long Point Light, which was replaced by a new light in 1875.

East Harbor

For a better part of modern history, the eastern port of Provincetown harbor is connected to another harbor, which is historically known as the Eastern Harbor. East Harbor is the most protected mooring spot on the outer Cape for boats using Cape Cod Bay and the Gulf of Maine. East Harbor has a 1000-foot wide (305 m) entrance channel from Provincetown Harbor, as shown on the adjacent map of 1836.

By the end of the nineteenth century, none of the roads led out or entered Provincetown - the only land route connecting Provincetown to outside points was along a thin stretch of beach along the coast to the north (locally called "backshore" ). A wooden bridge was erected over East Harbor in 1854, only to be destroyed by winter and ice storms two years later. Although the bridge was replaced in the following year, a traveler who used it still had to cross several miles through a sand route, which, along with the coastal route, would sometimes be swept away by a storm. This makes Provincetown like an island, as it almost entirely relies on its port for communication, travel, and trade purposes.

In 1868 the mouth of the East Port was castrated, to facilitate the laying of lanes for the arrival of railroads; wooden bridges and sandbags were eventually replaced by official roads in 1877, as shown in the accompanying map from 1887. The East Harbor is thus a lake, connected to Provincetown Harbor only through a culvert in the embankment, and in 1910, the Survey US Geology (USGS) officially named it Pilgrim Lake.

In subsequent years, the embankment became clogged with vegetation, initiating desalination trends and oxygen depletion resulting in the demise of native wildlife populations, sometimes in the form of kill fish. In 2004, tidal flows were successfully restored by the National Park Service, in collaboration with other local, state, and federal agencies. The following year, for the first time since Abraham Lincoln became president, legal-size shells were found at East Harbor. In 2008, the USGS officially renamed the Pilgrim Lake, restoring the original designation of East Harbor.

More history

Gale Portland in 1898 destroyed several piers and fishing vessels in the harbor.

In 2002, Provincetown Harbor Beach was selected by the US Environmental Protection Agency as one of three Flagship beaches for the state of Massachusetts that serves as a model for coastal managers in water quality monitoring and pollution assessment and because of its health.

The harbor is the southern boundary of Provincetown's historic district, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Harbor Hotel Provincetown | Finard Properties

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Landmarks

Two main parallel docks dominated port centers in the late 19th century: Railroad Wharf and Steamboat Wharf. President Grant visited Provincetown for the opening of the railroad in 1874. Today, the dock has been replaced by a dock. Although the rail and steamboat services to Provincetown have long ended, the ferry service continues.

MacMillan dock , Provincetown town pier, significantly renovated and expanded during 2003-2005 with the help of a low interest loan of $ 1.95 million from the Rural Development program of the US Department of Agriculture. The jetty primarily caters to tourists and high-speed ferries to Boston and Plymouth that charge their passengers up to $ 44 per trip one way. The Provincetown Public Pier Corporation (PPPC) signed a 20-year lease agreement for MacMillan Pier operations in 2005. The pier was named after polar explorer Donald B. MacMillan, a native of Provincetown who retired to Provincetown and died there in 1970.

Immediately parallel to MacMillan Pier is Fisherman's Wharf, also known locals as Cabral's Pier. They Are Also Facing the Ocean is an outdoor art installation of five large portraits of local Portuguese-American women photographed by Norma Holt hung since 2003 on one side and one end of an old fish packing plant in Cabral Pier.

In 1907 and 1910, when the Pilgrim Monument began to be built and when dedicated, the entire fleet of US Navy navies were in the harbor for a grand ceremony led by Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, respectively.

In addition to the panoramic view of the entire city, the harbor gives a view of three working lighthouses: Long Point Light, Wood End Light, and Highland (or Cape Cod) Light. All three are on the ground at Cape Cod National Seashore. The harbor serves as the southern boundary of the nationally listed Provincetown historic area, which consists of about 3,000 hectares (12 km ²), 1127 buildings, three structures, and five objects.

In the East End of Provincetown, Lewis Wharf was purchased by Mary Heaton Vorse, and his old fish hut was converted into a theater that was home to Provincetown players. Eugene O'Neill debuted his first drama, Bound East for Cardiff, there in 1916.

Captain Jack's Wharf is at the western end of Provincetown. At another theater on the dock, Tennessee Williams debuted Street A Named Desire with Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski before the drama appeared on Broadway.

The US Coast Guard has administrative buildings and barracks at the base of the concrete pier at the harbor. The station is currently open in 1979 and is responsible for safety and law enforcement at over 1,200 square miles (3,100 km ²) from Cape Cod Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Warning of past disasters in the region of this station include the wreckage of S-4 in 1927. This station includes the first federal building to receive solar power. The scenery that often takes place at the harbor is the 47-foot Motor Lifeboat station.

The West End Breakwater, built in 1911 by the US Army Corps of Engineers, is open to the public for walking and exploring. Technically, it's more of a dyke than a breakwater. The harbor also has an "authentic" wave breaker built between 1970 and 1972 and is located 835 feet (255 m) from the end of the MacMillan dock.

A photograph of a seagull in Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod Stock ...

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Sea life

Provincetown Harbor supports a wide variety of marine life from algae, seagrass and plankton through bryozoa, hydroids, echinoderms, crustaceans, mollusks, fish, birds, marine mammals, and other animals.

The harbor is an incredibly diverse and productive habitat. The following tables do not list 94 examples of marine life that are regularly observed in the harbor. Several landbirds are common among the MacMillan Pier, on the beach, and at breakwaters.

Provincetown harbor - search in pictures

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Annual event history

The Great Provincetown Schooner Regatta every September retains the history of the harbor as a great sailing port.

The Fleeting Ceremony was held at the end of MacMillan Pier in late June, when all ships operating at the port were blessed by a visiting bishop as part of the Provincetown Portuguese Festival.

The Swim for Life takes place every September since 1988, which swims across the harbor to raise funds and awareness of HIV/AIDS, women's health and public health.

A photograph of some fishing boats in Provincetown Harbor, Cape ...

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Commercial use

About a dozen fishing trawlers (known as "draggers"), ferries to Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts, different sports boats, boat rentals, and other commercial boats also use the harbor today.

The East Coast watched whales at Stellwagen Bank originate as a joint effort of the Dolphin Fleet and Coastal Study Center departing from MacMillan Pier in 1975. In addition, other tour operators offer a variety of tours to and from the harbor, including tourist history tours, , sunset cruises and more.