The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-05-21
JETT|ES ALONG SHORE.
Only Effective Method De-
vised for Keeping the
Ocean Back.

Ther was d time only a few years ago
says the Newark Sunday call" when it
was believed that nothing could be built
to stay the ravages of the sea on the New
Jersey coast when the sea really set in
to seize a slice OF the beach. Costly bulk
heads were built year after year, only to
torn to peices by the angry waves OF
winter ana distributed along the coast.
These structures, built by property own
ers, increased i'm strength with each
renewal but, no matter how heavy the
timbers were, the sane foundation re-
manned just asgunstable as ever, and the
sea easily licked away the sand until the
planks and timbers were loosened below.
Then the laundering breakers quickly
pounded the structures to pieces.
One long and costly bulkhead built by
the Central Railroad people at Highland
Beach has proved by standing intact for
a dozen years thai there is a form of con-
struction which can repel the worst of
storms, for within that period the great
est tempests within the memory of man
have ragged impotently against the barrier.
It consists of a ouble row Of piling,
strongly braced with crossties and string
ers, securely bolted together and forming
a narrow crib. which is filed in with
broken rock.
Running north from this noble bulk-
head is the railroad trestle to Sandy Hook,
For years this trestle ran over a narrow
strip of SAND only a few inches above
high-water mark, and the railroad people
kept 1t constantly protected by a barri-
cade of sand in sacks. When the Govern
ment forced the railroad eompany to. leave
Sandy Hook and make its terminus at
Atlantic Highlands the work of protecting
the trestle was abandoned, although the
Ordnance Department continued to use
the road for Government purposes.
There came a storm which cut an inlet
through the trestle to the Shrewsbury
River, and week by week the inlet grew
in width until half a mile of white break
ers were constantly beating against the
piling. Then came a storm at the close
of last summer which ripped the deck of
the trestle and forced it inward until it
hung balanced upon one line of piling for
a distance of 200 yards or more. This was
laboriously repaired, and since then the
Government has dumped thousands of
tons of heavy rock alongside of the ~trestle,
with a view of strengthening 1t and clos
ing the inlet. Old beach-combers laugh at
the work and say that without a crib to
hold it the rock is just being wasted and
that it might as well be dumped in fifty
fathoms of water as upon those shifting
sands.
The greatest success in protecting the
beach and making it grow has been found
further down thessshore by the discreet
placing Of jetties at an angle with the
shore line. These jetties are constructed
in the same manner as the bulkhead at
Highland Beach. They are narrow cribs
of piling, braced and filled with coarse
stone, but instead of being placed parallel
with the beach they extend out into the
breakers for varying distances.
James A. Bradley of Asbury Park spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars in fight
ing waves and repairing before learning
what could be saved by building these
~jetties. Last year it cost him $780, 900 to
keep his board walk intact. Meanwhile
Ocean Grove and Belmar built ~jetties.
which proved so satisfactory that Mr..
Bradley followed suit, and in the last six
months he has lost IS along the beach,
while millions of yards of SAND have been
contributed by the sea and have made the
Asbury Park beach the finest in the coun-
try and probably the most table.