Work on the East Chop bulkhead and jetties to prevent further erosion of the sightly cliff and drive, began on Tuesday when a gang of workmen in charge of superintendent H. L. Curtis of C. W.
Coastal erosion has split Lucy Vincent Beach, temporarily cutting off a portion frequented by nude bathers at the point of a fossil-encrusted cliff, stretching the beach patrol and putting swimmers at risk.
The irony of Oak Bluffs is that people so loved its beaches, they set about destroying them.
They built so close to the ocean’s edge they had to defend their development with a seawall. And the seawall prevented the natural replenishment of the sand, so the beach eroded away.
Geological time mostly runs incredibly slowly, in measures of
hundreds of thousands, if not millions or billions of years. No wonder
Bob Woodruff was excited about what happened over the weekend.
On a calm day, ocean waves lap on the beach less than 20 feet from
East Chop Drive in Oak Bluffs. The edge of the road is already breaking
up.
The changing shoreline on Martha's Vineyard variously fascinates, startles or horrifies people, depending on where they live or own property. The strongest supporting images of erosion are provided by destruction of buildings located at the water's edge, such as lighthouses and Worlds War II military bunkers. Among the latter, a concrete bunker (part of the Katama Naval Air Station target track) once 180 feet from the shore at South Beach in Edgartown was last seen far offshore, drowned in the surf. The associated rate of shoreline retreat comes to about 12 feet per year.
Work on the East Chop bulkhead and jetties to prevent further erosion of the sightly cliff and drive, began on Tuesday when a gang of workmen in charge of superintendent H. L. Curtis of C. W. Blakelee and Sons, Inc., of New Haven, Conn., made the first preparatory moves on the big job at the foot of Atlantic avenue where the bulkhead will begin.
