Great Egg Harbor Bay

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Great Egg Harbor Bay
Great Egg Harbor Bay with the Great Egg Harbor Bridge, Beesley's Point Generating Station, New Jersey Route 52 and the Rainbow Islands in the background

Great Egg Harbor Bay with the Great Egg Harbor Bridge , Beesley's Point Generating Station , New Jersey Route 52 and the Rainbow Islands in the background

Waters Atlantic Ocean
Land mass Atlantic County and Cape May Counties in New Jersey
Geographical location 39 ° 18 '15 "  N , 74 ° 38' 59"  W Coordinates: 39 ° 18 '15 "  N , 74 ° 38' 59"  W.
Great Egg Harbor Bay, New Jersey
Great Egg Harbor Bay
width 8 kilometers
depth 4.5 km
surface 22 km²
Tributaries Great Egg Harbor River

Great Egg Harbor Bay (or Great Egg Harbor ) is a bay between Atlantic Counties and Cape May Counties in southern New Jersey in the United States . The Great Egg Harbor River, fed by 17 tributaries, empties into the bay. During the Sangamonian - warm period of the Great Egg Harbor River formed a delta , which comprised most of the southern Cape May County. Over time, the river changed its course and flowed into the Atlantic Ocean at the Great Egg Harbor Inlet between Ocean City and Longport . At its eastern periphery, the bay has a length of around 8 km.

The bay has a total area of ​​22 km², its depth varies. It is lowest in Peck Bay and reaches up to 10 m.

history

During the Sangamonian Stage, the melting glaciers formed rivers that carried suspended sediments into the Atlantic Ocean . The Great Egg Harbor River then formed a delta that covered most of what is now Cape May County . Over time, the river moved its mouth to its current position. It flows into Great Egg Harbor Bay between Ocean City and Longport on the Great Egg Harbor Inlet.

The first known residents of the region were people from the Lenni Lenape people , who fished, collected mussels and bathed here in the summer months. John Somers was the first European; he settled in the area where Somers Point is now , on the northern periphery of the bay. Somers had acquired the land from Thomas Budd in 1693 and named the area Somerset Plantation, Somers Ferry and Somers Plantation until the name Somers Point prevailed in 1750. From 1695 John Somers operated the first ferry service across the bay to Cape May County. His son Richard built Somers Mansion sometime between 1720 and 1726 , which is the oldest existing house in the county. In the 17th and 18th centuries, pirates and other sailors used the bay as a refuge. In 1880, a year after Ocean City was founded, a regular steamboat service was established between there and Somers Point. In 1897, the eastern borders of Peck Bay and Great Egg Harbor Bay were used as the city limits of the newly formed City of Ocean City.

bridges

In 1907, the Atlantic City and Shore Railroad began operating between Atlantic City and Ocean City via Somers Point. The bridge over Great Egg Harbor Bay burned down in 1946 and was not rebuilt, and the line was shut down in 1948. In 1914, the Ocean City Automobile Bridge Company funded the construction of a toll road bridge between Somers Point and Ocean City. The toll ceased in 1921 with the purchase of the bridge by the state of New Jersey, and in 1933 the bridge was replaced by a new construction. This bridge, the World War Memorial Bridge with New Jersey Route 52 , was replaced by a wider and taller bridge in 2012.

In 1928, a bridge was opened in north Ocean City connecting Great Egg Harbor Inlet with the Atlantic County Marshland . That same year, the Ocean City Automobile Club funded the construction of the Beesley's Point Bridge , which connected Somers Point to Beesley's Point . Due to damage, this bridge was closed in 2004 and finally demolished in 2016. The Great Egg Harbor Bridge was built in 1955, and a parallel bridge for northbound traffic on the Garden State Parkway opened in 1973. The bridge with traffic to the south, built in 1955, was replaced in 2016 and the bridge leading to the north is being renovated; completion is scheduled for 2019.

geography

Map of Great Egg Harbor Bay, surrounding waters, and nearby towns.

Before it flows into Great Egg Harbor Bay, the Great Egg Harbor River joins the Middle and Tuckahoe Rivers between the Upper Township and Egg Harbor Township . The bay is part of the lagoon system behind New Jersey's barrier islands. The bay is actually a drowned river valley and covers an area of ​​22 km². It stretches along the coast for 8 km and about 4.5 km inland. The tidal range fluctuates from 1.52 m at spring tide and 0.7 m at nipp tide. Storms hitting the coast have a significant impact on the tide. The bay has a salinity between 17 and 32 ppt ( parts per thousand ) and is therefore considered polyhaline . The circulation of the tidal water in the bay is counterclockwise and is enhanced by deep channels. The water quality is good , despite the urban development in the area and the oxygen saturation . When a storm surge occurs, water from Ocean City enters the bay directly.

7662 hectares of salt marshes , beaches and settlements border the bay . The water depth in the bay ranges from less than a meter to over ten meters in the main channel that runs from the Great Egg Harbor Inlet to the mouths of the Tuckahoe and Great Egg Harbor Rivers. Sediments from the rivers form sandbanks and tidal flats , some of which rise out of the bay to form a series of marshy islands, including the approximately 100 hectare Rainbow Islands, which are, however, inundated by spring tides, and Cowpens Island. The rising sea level means that these islands lose an average of 7 mm per year. They lost about five percent in size between 1940 and 1991.

The canals in the bay carry sand and shell debris into the Great Egg Harbor Inlet. In this area, changing currents make navigation dangerous for boats, because the tides and sandbanks are constantly changing. In order to improve the navigability and to equip the sand pre-wash in Ocean City, the United States Army Corps of Engineers dredges regularly at a point about 1,500 m in front of the Great Egg Harbor Inlet.

Pecks Bay is a shallow appendage of Great Egg Harbor Bay; it is located in the southern area between Ocean City and the main part of Cape May County. Pecks Bay is also part of the Intracoastal Waterway and connects Great Egg Harbor Bay with Crook Horn Creek. This fairway runs on the west side of Ocean City and reaches the ocean at Corson Inlet and runs south through Cape May County.

Ecosystem

The creeks and channels in the bay carry sediments which create a soft bottom and a good 280 hectare habitat for shellfish . Other Invertebrates in the bay are mussels, barnacles , amphipods , mysida and worms. In flat areas where the sunlight reaches the ground, grow algae and sea grasses . The bay is also a breeding area for northern clams and oysters. 32 species of fish were counted in the bay, including six species that use the bay as a spawning area. The endangered leatherback turtle and other species of turtles inhabit New Jersey's coastal waters, including the bay. Dozens of bird species use the waters and adjacent marshland as breeding grounds. Cowpens Island is a bird sanctuary and nesting colony for herons. The region is considered one of the most important resting places for migratory birds in the United States.

Industry

There were several shipyards at Somers Point in the 18th century . Shellfish catching is allowed from November 1st to April 30th.

The natural course of the coast of the barrier islands around Ocean City and Longport has been greatly changed by coastal protection structures.

supporting documents

  1. ^ Carol S. Lucey: Geology of Cape May County in Brief ( English , PDF) New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. 1976. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  2. ↑ Joseph Dowhan, Thomas Halavik: Great Egg Harbor Estuary Complex # 3 . US Fish and Wildlife Service. November 1997.
  3. ↑ Starting as a trickle near Berlin, NJ ( English ) National Park Service. March 22, 2016. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  4. ^ History of the Ten Villages of Upper Township: Marmora (English) . In: Shore News Today , February 27, 2017. Archived from the original on March 31, 2018 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved April 1, 2018. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.shorenewstoday.com 
  5. ^ New Jersey State Historic Sites ( English ) New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. January 3, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  6. ↑ Guide to Historic Tour of Somers Point (PDF) Somers Point Historical Society.
  7. ^ History of Ocean City, NJ ( English ) VisitNJShore.com. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  8. ^ Acts of the One Hundred and Twenty-first Legislature of the State of New Jersey . MacCrellish and Quigley, Current Printers, Trenton, New Jersey 1897, p. 107.
  9. ↑ George Woodman Hilton, John Fitzgerald Due: The Electric Interurban Railways in America . Stanford University Press, 1960, p. 307.
  10. ^ National Register of Historic Places; Registration Form ( English , PDF) United States National Park Service. February 7, 1997. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  11. ↑ Jacqueline L. Urgo: Route 52 Causeway ready for the season in Ocean City, NJ . In: The Philadelphia Inquirer , May 17, 2012. Retrieved March 1, 2018. 
  12. ^ Fred Miller: Ocean City: America's Greatest Family Resort . Arcadia Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-7385-2447-6 , pp. 11, 46, 153.
  13. ^ Lee Procida: Closed bridge ties Beesley's Point to the quiet life . In: Press of Atlantic City , December 19, 2012. Retrieved March 1, 2018. 
  14. ^ Columb Higgins: Blast demolishes last of Beesley's Point Bridge . November 18, 2016. Archived from the original on March 2, 2018 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved March 1, 2018. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.shorenewstoday.com 
  15. ↑ Michael Miller: Parkway to replace southbound Great Egg Harbor bridge; demolition pushed for Beesley's Point Bridge . In: Press of Atlantic City , March 11, 2011. 
  16. ↑ John DeRosier: Parkway traffic eases over Great Egg Harbor bridge . In: Press of Atlantic City , October 18, 2016. 
  17. ↑ Jacqueline L. Urgo: Get ready for two more years of traffic headaches at the Jersey shore . In: The Philadelphia Inquirer , January 15, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2018. 
  18. ↑ Norbert P. Psuty, Tanya M. Silveira: geomorphological evolution of Estuaries: The Dynamic Basis for Morpho Sedimentary Units in Selected Estuaries in the Northeastern United States . (PDF) In: Marine Fisheries Review . 71, September, ISSN  0090-1830 , pp. 38-39.
  19. ^ NJ Route 52 (1) Causeway Between City of Somers Point, Atlantic County, and Ocean City, Cape May County Draft Environmental Impact Statement (PDF) United States Department of Transportation. III-62, III-77, III-89, III-116, III-118, III-130, IV-II, I-13. August 2000. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  20. ^ New Jersey Shore Protection, Great Egg Harbor and Peck Beach, (Ocean City), NJ . United States Army Corps of Engineers. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  21. ^ Studies of The Great Egg Harbor River and Bay . New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. 1972.
  22. ↑ Peter L. handle: Intercoastal Waterway . In: Atlantic Boating Almanacs: Sandy Hook, NJ To St. Johns River, Fl & Bermuda  (= Atlantic Boating Almanac), Volume 3 2004, pp. 161, 174-175.
  23. ^ NJ Route 52 (1) Causeway Between City of Somers Point, Atlantic County, and Ocean City, Cape May County Federal # BRF-0070103 Technical Environmental Study . United States Department of Transportation. August 2000.