Editing Cape Cod (section)

===Physical geography and boundaries===
[[File:CapeCod2022OSM.png|thumb|left|Detailed map of Cape Cod/Barnstable County]]
The name "Cape Cod", as it was first used in 1602, applied only to the very tip of the peninsula. It remained that way for 125 years until the "Precinct of Cape Cod" was incorporated as the Town of Provincetown. No longer in "official" use over the ensuing decades, the name came to mean all of the land east of the Manomet and Scusset rivers – essentially along the line that became the Cape Cod Canal. The creation of the canal separated the majority of the peninsula from the mainland. Many state and federal agencies, including the Cape Cod Commission and the [[Federal Emergency Management Agency]] (FEMA), treat the Cape as an island with regard to disaster preparedness, groundwater management, and other infrastructure factors.<ref name=USCG>{{cite web|url=http://www.uscg.mil/d1/airstaCapeCod/inboundpersonnel/area-overview.asp|title=Local Cape Cod Information|author=United States Coast Guard}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Vuilleumier |first=Marion R. |title=Sagamore Beach |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2003 |page=7 |isbn=9780738511832}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.capecodcommission.org/econdevel/CEDS/CEDS2009/FINALCEDS09-5YEARUPDATE.doc |title=Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) |author=Cape Cod Commission |access-date=May 17, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326161203/http://www.capecodcommission.org/econdevel/CEDS/CEDS2009/FINALCEDS09-5YEARUPDATE.doc |archive-date=March 26, 2010 }}</ref> Cape Codders tend to refer to the land on the mainland side of the canal as "off-Cape", though the legal delineation of Cape Cod, coincident to the boundaries of Barnstable County, includes portions of the towns of Bourne and Sandwich that are located north of the canal.

[[Cape Cod Bay]] lies in between Cape Cod and the mainland – bounded on the north by a line between [[Provincetown]] and [[Marshfield, Massachusetts|Marshfield]]. North of Cape Cod Bay (and Provincetown) is [[Massachusetts Bay]], which contains the [[Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary]], located {{convert|5|mi|0}} north of Provincetown. Cape Cod Bay and Massachusetts Bay are both part of the Gulf of Maine, which includes the waters between the Cape and Nova Scotia. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east of Cape Cod, and to the southwest of the Cape is [[Buzzards Bay]]. The Cape Cod Canal, completed in 1916, connects Buzzards Bay to Cape Cod Bay; its creation shortened the trade route between New York and Boston by {{convert|62|mi}}.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Opening of the Cape Cod Canal|journal = Bulletin of the American Geographical Society|publisher=Bulletin of the [[American Geographical Society]]|volume=46|issue = 11|date=1914|pages=832–834|doi=10.2307/200951|jstor=200951}}</ref>

Cape Cod extends {{convert|65|mi|km}} into the Atlantic Ocean, with a breadth of between {{convert|1|–|20|mi|km}}, and covers more than {{convert|400|miles}} of shoreline.<ref>{{Britannica|123862}}.</ref> Its elevation ranges from {{convert|306|ft|m}} at its highest point, at the top of [[Pine Hill (Barnstable County, Massachusetts)|Pine Hill]], in the Bourne portion of [[Joint Base Cape Cod]], down to sea level.

Cape Cod and the Islands form part of a continuous [[archipelago|archipelagic region]] consisting of a chain of islands running from Long Island to the tip of the Cape. This region is historically and collectively known by naturalists as the [[Outer Lands]].