ATLANTIC COAST OF LONG ISLAND, FIRE ISLAND INLET AND 

 SHORE WESTERLY TO JONES INLET. NEW YORK 



The problem area, located about 50 miles east of New York City, 

 includes the barrier beach On the south shore of Long Island from Fire 

 Island Inlet to Jones Inlet, also Oak Beach on the north shore of Fire 

 Island Inlet. This frontage is about 15 miles in length, all publicly 

 owned. Oak Beach, Cedar Island Beach and Gilgo Beach, all owned by the 

 town of Babylon, and Gilgo State Park, owned by the Long Island State 

 Park Commission, occupy the easterly 7 miles of shore all in Suffolk 

 County. Tobay Beach, owned by the town of Oyster Bay, and Jones Beach 

 State Park, owned by the Long Island State Park Commission, occupy the 

 remaining 8 miles of shore, all in Nassau County. The study area also 

 includes Fire Island Inlet and the ocean shore east thereof where sand 

 has been impounded by the jetty at Fire Island Inlet. Jones Beach State 

 Park is a world-famous recreational beach, developed at a cost of over 

 $50,000,000. About 8,000,000 people visit Jones Beach annually, over 

 10 percent of whom come from areas outside New York State. Facilities 

 at the other public beaches are valued at about $350,000. Further im- 

 provement of both Jones Beach and Gilgo State Parks is planned by 

 the Long Island State Park Commission when shore restoration and 

 stabilization are assured. 



The tides in the study area are semi-diurnal, the mean and spring 

 ranges being respectively about 4.1 and 5.0 feet. The maximum tide 

 of record was 9.5 feet above mean sea level, or about 11.5 feet above 

 mean low water. The area is exposed to waves generated in distant 

 ocean areas. In general they approach the shore from east of a line 

 normal to the beach, thus causing a predominant westward littoral drift, 

 estimated at 450,000 cubic yards per year on the basis of impoundment 

 from 1940 to 1946 at the Fire Island Inlet jetty. The deficiency in 

 supply to the shore west of that inlet has been estimated to have 

 averaged 300,000 cubic yards annually for the period 1939 to 1955. 



The District Engineer concluded that the most practicable plan of 

 shore protection for the Fire Island Inlet-Jones Inlet area is a com- 

 prehensive plan which comprises bypassing of sand westward across the 

 Fire Island Inlet to a feeder beach and to Oak Beach, restoration of the shore 

 west of the inlet approximately to its 1939 position, possible channel 

 relocation and construction of stabilization works at Oak Beach. Pre- 

 servation of the stability of the restored shore thereafter would be 

 accomplished by periodic bypassing of sand. The District Engineer also 

 considered an alternative short-range plan which consists of dredging 

 the inlet shoal opposite the western part of Oak Beach in three operations 

 to relieve the pressure of tidal currents against Oak Beach, to provide 

 a deposition area for littoral drift and to obtain fill material for the 

 feeder beach and for Oak Beach. The District Engineer found that the 

 comprehensive plan was amply justified by prospective benefits, and that 

 the public interest involved in protection of public property warrants 

 Federal participation to the extent of 42 percent of the initial costs 

 and 13 percent of the costs of repeated bypassing operations. The 



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