SHORE PROTECTION IN HARRISON COUNTY. MISSISSIPPI 



Francis F, Escoffier and William L. Dolive 



Mobile District, Corps of Engineers 



Mobile, Alabama 



Affording over 700 acres of recreational beach area, the recently 

 completed hydraulic fill protecting the sea wall and adjacent Federal 

 highway in Harrison County, Miss., is reported to be the longest man« 

 made beach in the world. 



The joint sea wall repair and beach restoration venture undertaken 

 ty Harrison County with Federal aid covers about 25 miles of Mississippi 

 Sound shore line between Biloxi and Henderson Point, near Pass Christian, 

 Miss. Mississippi Sound, extending east and west for about 75 miles 

 along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts, is separated from open water 

 of the Gulf of Ifexico by a chain of barrier islands lying some 10 to 12 

 miles offshore. Depths in the sound are shallow, increasing progressive- 

 ly from the mainland to a maxlmom of 15 to 20 feet near the barrier islands. 

 The contour of 6~foat depth in places is as much as a mile offshore. 

 Much of the land bordering the coast is low, flat, and subject to 

 inundation by hurricane tides. 



The Mississippi Gulf coast, long a favorite resort area for tourists 

 and vacationers from aJJ. parts of the country, has been developed to 

 the extent that practically the entire coastal strip in Harrison County 

 is urban in character. The three principal coastal cities, Biloxi, 

 Gulf port, and Pass Christian, are linked by a multi-million dollar 

 highway, part of transcontinental U. S, 90, consisting of a raulti-lane 

 divided roadway. The traffic load thereon varies from 18,000 vehicles 

 daily during the week to 22,000 daily on week ends. The highway closely 

 borders Mississippi Sound and is protected by the sea wall throughout 

 most of its length in Harrison County. 



Hurricanes and beach erosion have always taken heavy tolls in 

 lives >;ni property damage along the Mississippi coast. The formation 

 of exceptionally high storm tides in Mississippi Sound is facilitated 

 by the progressively diminishing depths of water encountered by the 

 wind-driven currentw as they move onshore and further by the converging 

 shore lines of the mainland and the Mississippi River delta, which act 

 to confine and pile up the wind-driven water. In 1915, a hurricane of 

 great magnitude destroyed over ha2f the coastal highway between Biloxi 

 and Pass Christian and altogether caused about $13,000,000 in damages 

 to beach front property in Mississippi and Louisiana. The enormous 

 damage resulting from this storm later prompted the State of Mississippi 

 to pass a law appointing an investigative commission and authorising 

 the coastal communities concerned to issue bonds to finance construction 



