PRESQUE ISLE PENINSULA, ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA 



The purposes of this cooperative study were to determine the rates 

 of loss and movement of the sand fill, to estimate the nourishment 

 requirements of the existing cooperative shore protection project wa ich 

 was constructed in 1955-56, and to determine its eligibility for Federal 

 participation in the cost of periodic beach nourishment in accordance 

 with provisions of Public Law 826, 8Uth Congress, approved July 28, 1956, 

 (or subsequent to authorization of the existing project), 



Presque Isle Peninsula is located on the south shore of Lake Erie 

 at Erie, Pennsylvania, about 78 miles southwest of Buffalo, New York and 

 102 miles noutheast of Cleveland, Ohio. The peninsula is a compound 

 recurved sandspit projecting a maximum distance of about 2,5 miles from 

 an otherwise straight mainland shore. From its root to its distal end, 

 it has a lake shore line over 6 miles in length. The large bay between 

 the peninsula and the mainland provides a spacious harbor which has been 

 improved by the Federal Government under the navigation project for Erie 

 Harbor. The peninsula provides valuable protection to the harbor. 

 Presque Isle Peninsula is generally low in elevation except for beach 

 ridges or dunes which rise to an average elevation of 20 feet above 

 Lake Erie low water datum. The peninsula ranges in width from about 

 800 feet near its root or neck to a maximum of about 1-l/U miles toward 

 the distal end. This includes the sand fill made on the lakeward side 

 in 1955-56 to restore the beach and a highway fill on the bay side made 

 shortly thereafter by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Presque Isle 

 State Park, comprising about 3,200 acres, occupies practically the 

 entire peninsula. The State has provided adequate access roads, but 

 has left the area for the most part in its natural condition. The park 

 is a popular area for bathing, boating, fishing, and other outdoor 

 forms of recreation. Its large attendance, totaling over 2,850,000 

 persons annually, is drawn mostly from western New York, Pennsylvania, 

 and eastern Ohio. The public has free and unrestricted access to the 

 park. The Erie City Water Works and U. S. Coast Guard also have 

 installations on the peninsula. 



The lake shore of the peninsula is exposed to wave attack from 

 the southwest through north to northeast. The greater frequency and 

 severity of storms from the westerly quadrant and the greater fetch 

 in that direction cause a predominant eastward movement of littoral 

 drift. During the period of record the supuly of beach material from 

 bluffs and streams west of the spit has been insufficient to replace 

 material eroded from the neck of the spit. Recession of the shore 

 line has been greatest at the root of the peninsula, gradually decreasing 

 to a nodal point about two-thirds of the length of the peninsula from the 

 root, from which point accretion has occurred as the eroded material was 

 deposited in that area. On several occasions the narrow neck of the 

 peninsula was breached by storm wave action. The earlier breaches 

 were closed by natural processes. The Federal Government closed a breach 

 in 1920-1922 and since has built seawalls and bulkheads on the lake shore 

 of the neck to preserve it and thus prevent the loss of protection it 

 affords to Erie Harbor. After this oortion of the shore was protected, 

 increased erosion occurred to more northeasterly portions of the peninsula, 



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