Record #:

10824

Author(s):

Sharpe, Bill

Abstract:

Few visitors to the Cape Lookout National Seashore realize that, without the interruption of World War I, the Cape would have become a great commercial harbor. Many, however, may notice the massive breakwater which impounds a vast harbor behind the hook of the Cape and wonder why it was ever built. It was part of a grand scheme by Senator Furnifold M. Simmons to make Cape Lookout a harbor of refuge from both storms and wars, a project that received approval and federal funding, pending an agreement with a railroad company that would ensure transport of supplies, such as coal for fueling vessels, and inland transport of goods that would be shipped into the port. After the war, the reorganized Norfolk Southern Railway refused to renew its promise to build a line to the natural harbor, the Army Engineers refused to resume work based on this decision, and there the matter rests, with only the partially completed great stone breakwater to prove that the National Seashore almost became a great port.

Source:

The State (NoCar F 251 S77), Vol. 36 Issue 24, May 1969, p9-10, il, map

Subject(s):

Cape Lookout--History