(180 m) coincided with west side erosion (90 m) . Net change (1856/57 to 1983) 

 was 850 m of east side accretion and 610 m of west side erosion. Inlet throat 

 width decreased from 360 m in 1856/57 to 150 m in 1983. 

 Cape Fear (Map 32) 



164. Shoreline position changes near Fort Caswell and Bald Head on Cape 

 Fear River (Map 31) have been measured by the shoreline mapping procedure 

 (Figure 47). Likewise, onshore -offshore changes on both sides of Cape Fear 

 have been presented. 



165. Cape Fear was most seaward on the 1878 field survey, but retreated 

 north-northwest 1,400 m by 1914. No substantial changes occurred at the cape 

 tip between 1914 and 1923, but by 1933/34, it had accreted 300 m to the south- 

 east. It retreated due north 240 m by the 1972/75 survey and moved east an 

 additional 180 m by 1983. Net change between 1878 and 1983 of the tip of Cape 

 Fear has been approximately 1,100 m of north-northwest erosion. Cape area has 

 been steadily decreasing, as evidenced in Table 13; however, rate of loss has 

 steadily decreased since 1878. 



Table 13 

 Subaerial Surface Area Changes at Cape Fear 



Difference in Area Rate of Area Change 

 Dates mf m 2 /year 



1878-1914 -3.2 x 10 6 -88,000 



1914-1923 -0.5 x 10 6 -50,000 



1923-1933/34 -0.2 x 10 6 -16,000 



1933/34-1972/75 -0.2 x 10 6 -6,000 



1972/75-1983 -85,000 -8,000 



New Inlet (Map 32) 



166. New Inlet is north of Cape Fear, along a north- south trending 

 coastline. In 1878, there were two long, thin islands (1,750 and 4,050 m) 

 composing the shoreline just north of a 360-m-long spit extending northerly 

 from East Beach on Smith Island. As a result, there were two inlets (60 and 

 670 m wide), both south of the 1983 position of New Inlet. By 1914, either 

 these two inlets had closed and a new inlet opened farther north, or a new 

 inlet had formed from northward migration of the larger inlet and small inlet 



121 



