Cape Ann is already experiencing climate change. These 27 vignettes show how Cape Ann’s critical infrastructure, beloved cultural landscapes and historic downtowns are changing before the storm arrives.

Route 127 Causeway at Goose Cove

Gloucester, MA

critical infrastructure, evacuation, hazard, public safety, seawall

Goose Cove is located in northern Gloucester, near the mouth of the Annisquam River and the neighborhoods of Annisquam and Lanesville. The Causeway across the Cove was constructed in 1833.¹ The structure includes granite boulders piled at the bottom of the seawall. Goose Cove and nearby Lobster Cove were previously used to shelter boats from northeast storms.²

Today, the two-lane road includes a granite masonry wall and an adjacent pedestrian footbridge.

Gloucester DPW repaired the stone wall at Goose Cove. Photograph by Catherine, 2019. www.goodmorninggloucester.com/tag/goose-cove/

The Route 127 Causeway already floods frequently, which may eventually cause collapse. A bridge or flood barriers will need to be constructed to protect the route in the near future.³ The Causeway is one of two main access routes to North Gloucester (the other is on Dennison Street), and both flood at the same time, re-routing traffic through Rockport.⁴ ⁵ The Causeway alters the flow of sediment in the Annisquam River.

Looking down Washington Street toward the Goose Cove bridge. Photograph by Melissa Cox, 2019. www.gloucestertimes.com/news/local_news/storm-hits-squam-overturning-trees-sailboats/article_b0f49ae3-bc69-5bf0-b1fe-a99bafd89630.html

During the Great Storm, the Causeway at Goose Cove and neighboring Dennis Street will flood simultaneously, leading Gloucester residents to evacuate through Rockport. Storm surge will overtop and buckle the Causeway, destroying the road and collapsing granite blocks into the Annisquam River. Nearby, the four dams at Goose Cove Reservoir — all classified as high hazard dams — will overtop, and the North Dam and Northwest Dike will send a flood wave that destroys the houses around Dennison and Holly Streets before emptying into Goose Cove.⁶

Historic American Engineering Board, Annisquam Bridge (Philadelphia: Department of the Interior, 1980), 2. ↩
Charles Boardman Hawes, Gloucester by Land and Sea: The Story of a New England Seacoast Town (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1913). ↩
Kleinfelder, Coastal Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan (Gloucester: Kleinfelder, June 29, 2015), 44. ↩
Metropolitan Area Planning Council, City of Gloucester Hazard Mitigation Plan 2020 Update (Gloucester: Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 2020), 37-38. ↩
Roy Lamont, “Flooding, road closures before high tide hits during storm,” Gloucester Daily Times, March 2, 2018. ↩
Kleinfelder, Coastal Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan (Gloucester: Kleinfelder, June 29, 2015), 49. ↩