Cape Cod

	Cape Cod
	; Cape Cod from space
	Geographical location
Coordinates	41 ° 41 ′ N , 70 ° 18 ′ W Coordinates: 41 ° 41 ′ N , 70 ° 18 ′ W
Waters 1	Buzzards Bay , Nantucket Sound
Waters 2	Atlantic Ocean , Cape Cod Bay
surface	878 km²
	; Beach on Cape Cod

Cape Cod ( German "Cape Cod" ) is a 878 km² peninsula in southeast Massachusetts in the USA .

Cape Cod got its name in 1602 from the English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold , who was impressed by the size of the cod grounds ( English cod for cod). In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers disembarked in one of the largest and safest natural harbors in New England , now Provincetown Harbor. Cape Cod became part of the Plymouth Colony they founded . In 1797 the first lighthouse , the Cape Cod Highland Light, was built. In 1914 a canal - the Cape Cod Canal - was built. The elongated peninsula was thus separated from the mainland and the passage from Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay and Long Island Sound was made easier.

On Cape Cod , the Air Force Space Command maintains a radar station of the PAVE-PAWS network at the Otis Air National Guard Base to record the launches of submarine-based ballistic missiles in the Atlantic. There are several marine research facilities in Woods Hole .

Today tourism is an important economic factor alongside fishing . This is where the Cape Cod National Seashore is located .

literature

Patrick J. Lynch: A Field Guide to Cape Cod: Including Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Block Island, and Eastern Long Island. Yale University Press, New Haven 2018, ISBN 978-0-300-22615-7 .
John T. Cumbler: Cape Cod: An Environmental History of a Fragile Ecosystem. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 2014, ISBN 978-1-62534-109-9 .

Commons : Cape Cod - collection of pictures, videos and audio files