City Information

Cape Cod is an arm-shaped peninsula forming the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. It is coextensive with Barnstable County. Although Cape Cod was originally connected to the mainland, the first Cape Cod Canal, completed in 1914, effectively transformed Cape Cod into a large island.

Cape Cod consists of three portions:
The "Upper Cape" is the section of Cape Cod closest to the mainland. This portion of the Cape includes the towns of Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich. While part of the city of Barnstable can be considered to be located on the Upper Cape, it is more commonly thought to be in the Mid-Cape area. Falmouth is the home of the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and is also the most-used connection to Martha's Vineyard via the ferry.

The Mid-Cape includes the city of Barnstable and the towns of 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 the one of the inventors of Technicolor, Herbert Kalmus. This popular wind surfing 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, Eastham, Harwich, Orleans, Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet.

The large area of water enclosed by Cape Cod and the mainland seacoast to the north forms 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 largest is Cuttyhunk.
Cape Cod is connected to the mainland by a pair of canal-spanning highway bridges from Bourne, Massachusetts and Sagamore, 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 a surface street thence to Provincetown. Commercial air service to Cape Cod occur at Barnstable Municipal Airport and Provincetown Municipal Airport.