within the study area is about 113,000. The estimated summer population 

 is about 700,000. The tributary area from which visitors are principally 

 drawn comprises Nevj Jersey and portions of New York, Pennsylvania and 

 Delaware with a total population of about 17,000,000. However, visitors 

 come from all States of the Union. About two-thirds of the shore 

 frontage is publicly owned. From Barnegat Inlet to Cape May the coastal 

 area consists of barrier beach islands. From Cape May to the Delaware 

 Bay entrance of the Cape May Canal the coastal plain extends to the 

 shore. The barrier beach is broken by many inlets. From Barnegat Inlet 

 southward there are the large inlet with two channels kno^vn as Beach 

 Haven Inlet and Little Egg Inlet, thence Brigantine, Absecon, Great Egg 

 Harbor, Corson, Townsend, Hereford and Cold Spring Inlets. The principal 

 shore erosion problems are associated with irregularity of transport of 

 littoral drift southward past the inlets. 



The erosion problems at Atlantic City, Ocean City and Cape May had 

 previously been studied by the Corps of Engineers, resulting in authori- 

 zation of Federal projects as follows: 



a. Atlantic City (House Doc. No. 538, 81st Congress) . Arti- 

 ficial placement of fill to widen the ocean and inlet beaches, groins on 

 the ocean and inlet shores, a jetty on Brigantine Island, extension of 

 the Oriental Avenue jetty, revetment and a steel bulkhead on the inlet 

 shore. Under this project, fill has been placed, the Brigantine jetty 

 has been partially built, groins, revetment and the bulkhead have been 

 constructed. 



b. Ocean City (House Doc. No. 184, 83d Congress) . Artificial 

 placement of fill to widen the beach and groin extensions. Under this 

 project the beach widening has been partially completed and the groins at 

 5th and 9th Streets have been extended. 



c. Cape May (Cold Spring Inlet - House Doc. No. 206, 83d 

 Congress) . Artificial placement of fill to widen the beach and to pro- 

 vide a feeder beach, and groin construction and extension of existing 

 groins. Part of the groin construction and extension under the project 

 has been completed. 



Tides in the area are serai- diujrnal, the mean range being about 

 4 feet. The spring range is about 5 feet. The maximum tide of record 

 at Atlantic City, 7.6 feet above mean sea level (9.5 feet above mean low 

 water), occurred during the hurricane of September 1944. The shore of 

 the study area is exposed to ocean waves from the northeast, east and 

 southeast, those with the greatest energy approaching from east -northeast. 

 As a result the predominant direction of littoral drift is southward. 



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