WAVE WORK 



559 



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Fig. 2. Ruins of Octagon Hotel at Seabeight. 



part of the beach surrounded by water for hours. Fortunately, the 

 waters were quiet in the protected bay, and the damage here was slight 

 compared with that on the exposed outer shore, where for a couple of 

 hours a large building collapsed on an average every fifteen minutes. 

 North of Seabright the waves broke through the breakwater which 

 protects the railroad, swept part of the tracks out to sea, and buried 

 other portions under masses of heavy stones. 



On Februaiy 14 and 15 occurred the third and least destructive 

 storm of the series, when the ivind reached an extreme velocity of 116 

 miles per hour. At this time the waves completed the destruction of 

 the Seabright Beach Clubhouse and certain other structures badly 

 damaged by the earlier storms. In the unprotected state of the shore 

 some further damage has been subsequently accomplished by noraial 

 wave erosion during comparatively calm weather, at least one valuable 

 summer residence being demolished in this manner. 



The portion of the New Jersey coast which suffered most from the 

 storm waves lies south of Sandy Hook and north of Long Branch. 

 (See Fig. 1.) At the latter place the waves of the sea are attacking the 

 mainland of New Jersey and have cut a marine cliff some 20 feet in 

 height in the seaward edge of the coastal plain. The debris eroded 

 from this cliff has been carried northward by longshore currents and 

 built into a narrow bar which has extended across the mouth of Shrews- 

 bury and Navesink Eivers, and out into the Bay of New York to form 

 the Sandy Hook spit. Monmouth Beach, Seabright and Highland 

 Beach are small towns built upon the bar, and are therefore but a few 

 feet above high-tide level. Formerly the sea broke against the main- 

 land just back of Seabright and at Navesink Highlands ; and old marine 



