The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-23
70 FIGHT THE HUNGRY SEA.
sEA GATE ALARMED BY THE
WASTING or ITS BEACH.
r.ttsxsrs Likely 20 Adopt an English
scheme OF Defence To-morrow--And n
n Proves Good Others WIN Try 1t
Tho Example OF Manhattan Beach.


,r,on the ocean shore of Sea Gate in the
Iast few winters that the property owners
~ that little colony have become alarmed
and are preparing to erect some coast
balances II the experiment that they are
about TO try proves successful similar
MEASURES will probably be adopted by
o.her settlements both here and in other
statss which have seen with dismay the
rrtiriny waves roll nearer and nearer to
their possessions from year to year.
If YOU will look ut a map of New York
the Greater New York, Of course-you will
zoe A short narrow peninsula stretching
eastward from the lower end of Brooklyn
Borough, and on the very end of it few
acres labelled Sea Gate. 1t is not hard to
imagine that when the waters were divided
nom the land sandbank was piled up and
swing back across one side OF New York
harbor like a gate half closed, and there ii
has stood ever since with the ever-changing
s,a on one hand and the snug and quiet
anchorage Of Gravesend Bay on the other.
70 they called the place Sea Gate, or. II that
isn't the reason 1t ought to be.
But the sea. like some more rational
creatures, knocks hard and long at closed
rates, and 1t has been pounding so merci-
lsssly at this one in recent winters, when
nobody was at home, that it threatens to
bsat down the portal altogether and walk in.
The first persons to take alarm at this
state Of affairs naturally were those whose
summer homes lie directly on the southern
beach bulkhead was built to protect
their front door yards some years ago,
but they have come to realize that this
is not enough. Some well-informed men
AVE estimated that at the present rate of
ennroachment large part Of the shore
between the Sea Gate fence and Beach
Forty-second street will be- carried away
within three years. In that event the
buIkhead would be undermined and in the
course of time the houses might be ex-
pected to topple into the sea and float off.
With this danger in view the beach-front
property owners met ON Aug. 10, and ap-
pointed committee of defence. and this
committee, acting with Supt. Lott, has
devised scheme by which 1t hopes to
arrest the destruction Of the shore and
eventually to compel the wind and the tide,
which have done all the mischief. to re-
pair the damage. Their project has been
Endorsed by the trustees Of the Sea Gate
Association, and a meeting Of tho whole
association will be held tomorrow night to
ratify their action and authorize the rais-
ing Of the necessary funds.
Tho expenditure now contemplated is
So 900, and Of this the beach-front jewellers
have offered to pay half II their interior
neighbors will provide the other half. This
division Of cost seems fair and is likely to
he accepted, because, while the people
living close to the water have their homes
10 protect and are therefore most deeply
concerned in the enterprise, the other
folks within the Gate have equal rights
with them in the Use of the beach and could
rot afford to lose il.
When tho Sea Gate people came TO con-
sider what measures they ought to take to
preserve their beach they must have found
very little suggestion from anything that
had been done in this country, except the
wisdom that comes from bad examples.
What their committee has proposed seems
10 be q modification Of a plan whic h has
been applied with great success for many
wears on the south coast OF England and in
Holland
Tho structures which are employed are
called groynes by the English people-our
dictionaries spell it -groin"-and the Dutch
folks have named them gloomings At first
sight an American would be likely to speak
" them as jetties, but that would not be
strictly correct.
The purpose of groynes is to intercept
and blown along the beach above high
water mark and to check the sweep of the
tidal current so that the sand and pebbles
which it holds in suspension will fall to the
bottom.
They are recognition Of the fact that the
forces which chiefly destroy beach are the
wind and the sweep Of the tidal current
and not the pounding Of the breakers and
I heir direct recession. 1t Is the securing
and not the battering that does the damage.
\ misunderstanding OF this truth has been
responsible for many futile attempts TO
ave American beaches.
The structure provided in a groyne
aries in form and material according to the
formation and character OF the beach
whether it is steep or gradual in it's slope,
and whether it is sand or Single. The
problem presented at Sea Gate is to check
the waste Of beach that ia composed al
most entirely of sand and which slopes grad
ually down from a slight bluff. Along a
great part Of its extent this bluff is bound
III ny u Dlllhllt0l lccl ihSlls
The GROSS streets of Sea Gate are about
six hundred feet apart. At the foot Of every
street a groyne will be built, beginning at
the bulkhead and extending at right angles
10 it, so that the seward end will be several
feet beyond low water mark. Each groyne
will be 81 feet high at the bulkhead and
70 inches high at the outer end.
Ia each space between the long groynes,
which are to be 600 feet apart, there will be
7 wn thrnQ ehnrfar n.fanlinU Qhn1If
seventv-five feet out from the bulkhead
and ending little beyond high-water mark.
These shorter groynes will have practically
no effect on the action of the tidal current
IN ordinary weather. but they will obviously
help 10 break its sweep in the high winter
Erf
Some of the Sea Gate people who have
examined the English and ID itch systems
With much care think that the shorter
groynes will hardly pay. They say that
long groynes reaching beyond low water
should be put in al intervals Of about 200
feet, the experience Of British engineers
having shown that on such a coast as that
OF Sea Gate the defences ought to be nearer
together than 900 feet and ought, in all
ras"s, 10 reach further than low water !
mark
The experience of Manhattan Beach was
very useful In telling Sea Gate what not |
70 do. Most New Workers. of middle age
VIII recall the time when there was good |
'pen sand from Brighton over TO Man
ihattan instead Of the sea wall and bulk /,
leal against which the breakers now dash |
themselves to spray and foam. |
After the Manhattan Beach was pretty |
well gone two ietties were built of piling, !
nhed in with stone, and they were made !
80 high that their outer ends were always |
above the water. The tidal current setting |