Absecon Inlet Atlantic City, NJ

by Arthur Neiman
(Atlantic City, NJ)

Death of a Glass Beach:
By Arthur Neiman:

Update Atlantic City, NJ.

Dear Lin, David, & fellow sea glass collectors.

It is with great sadness that I must report the death of one of the truly great, outstanding, and historic, glass recovery beaches of NJ. and the east coast.

Yes now the story can finally be told, The beach, or actually several beaches, at the Absecon Inlet of Atlantic City, NJ have after over 150 years been altered and completely destroyed by the Army Corps of engineers. This has been done in an effort to mitigate the flooding by storms, mostly Nor-Easters, to the inlet area.

The Corp decided to completely wall off the beaches along the southern portion of the jetty, no longer allowing any water or surf to flow along or up the four small beautiful sandy beaches there.

Of course with the advent of the full steel and rock boulder wall, no water is able to wash onto these once sheltered, and secluded beaches. The result has been the total destruction & annihilation of some of the best and most unique sea glass beaches on the east coast, and the entire United States.

To the best of my knowledge no environmental impact statement was ever done or public hearings ever held on or about the area before this wanton destruction took place. the whole area is, or was, a nursery for many species of fish and invertebrates.

Many of Atlantic City's children and residents used these beaches for relaxing, fishing, and sea glass collecting. Many striped bass have been caught on these beaches over the years, including the former world record stripped bass caught very close to the destroyed beaches.

Mostly known to locals, and a few outsiders, after any north east storm, the beaches of the inlet were recharged with sea glass often well over 100 years old. The local collectors kept this somewhat to ourselves, but most were glad to share with the non locales that often showed up. I was most fortunate to meet many very nice folks over the years while out hunting sea glass.

Over the last several years I have been lucky to have been able to gather, and recover, many hundreds of pounds of the most beautiful sea glass, many of high gem, jewelry quality. That being said it was so nice to meet other glass collectors and enjoy the hunt.

I have also been able to recover many artifacts of the old city and the many stores and shops that used to be along the boardwalk that ran along the jetty in those olden days. Some sea glass may still be found further up the inlet, but the amount of sea glass has been diminished by almost 98%. Sometimes all it takes is for some common sense rather than doing the expedient thing taking a bad situation and making it worse in so many ways.

Photo of the before and after of the new inlet construction, and of my collection of Atlantic City Sea Glass and artifacts finds will be posted in the future.

Thanks to all my sea glass friends.

Yours truly:

Arthur Neiman

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