BS: US east coast shorelines

Subject: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Margo
Date: 14 May 03 - 10:34 AM

Hello Folks!

I am writing a story. Since I want to be somewhat accurate with my descriptions, I was hoping some of you who live on the east coast could help me. I am wondering what the shoreline is like from North Carolina up to Long Island. Are there no rocky bluffs? Are there no tree lined shores? All the photos I can find show sandy beaches or grassy lands, all low and near the ocean. Any descriptions are welcome! Thanks, Margo

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: MMario
Date: 14 May 03 - 10:40 AM

I'm sure there are some - but not a huge amount.

not exactly ocean-front - but near the mouth of the hudson are the Palisades click

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Doug_Remley
Date: 14 May 03 - 11:19 AM

Switch the story-line to Maine! 2,000 miles of granite and five fjiords!

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 14 May 03 - 02:57 PM

Mostly sand and beaches. Most of the shoreline is actually barrier islands. Salt marshes and shallow bays make up the area between sea and land.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: CarolC
Date: 14 May 03 - 03:46 PM

I had a dream recently in which I saw some of the coastline in the (approximately) southern half of New Jersey. In my dream, there was a barrier island, and on the inland side of that, the actual coastal shore was very convoluted and a little hilly. There were even some islands with hills on them between the coast and the barrier island. Does anyone know if this matches up with the reality? I looked on a map and saw that that part of the coast of NJ actually does have barrier islands and a convoluted coast, but I don't know about the hills.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: GUEST,Claymore
Date: 14 May 03 - 04:27 PM

Carol, sorry to tell you, but from Cape May up, New Jersey is pretty flat, with only sand dunes to count as hills. Now Kill Devil Hills, in NC, has some pretty high sand dunes, but no real cliffs to speak of. And inside the Chesapeake Bay, the are some tree lined bluffs in Virginia, but they are not technically facing the Atlantic.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: CarolC
Date: 14 May 03 - 05:19 PM

Are you talking about the barrier island, the shore that's a part of the mainland, or both, Claymore? In my dream, the hills were only one or two hundred feet high, and they weren't on the barrier islands.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: KateG
Date: 14 May 03 - 05:43 PM

I was down in Cape May last week, and it's flat. The barrier islands are flat, the marshes behind them are flat, and the mainland is flat (and fairly soggy as a result). It rolls a tiny bit as you head north into Monmouth County, but the undulations can hardly be counted as hills. In fact, they are so gradual that there are signs on the Garden State Parkway that say "Hill, Maintain Speed" cause otherwise folks wouldn't realize they were climbing.

The Connecticut coast of Long Island Sound is fairly rocky and hilly with trees, and many of the beaches are stony (I grew up there, so I know). However, Long Island is basically a big sand dune with barrier islands on the south (Atlantic)coast, and the Delmarva peninsula (where my sister-in-law lives) is likewise flat and sandy with barrier islands on the Atlantic side and myriad creeks and inlets on the Chesapeak side.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 14 May 03 - 06:10 PM

There is a very interesting presentation at Mount Mitchell, the tallest mountain in the Appalachian chain, in North Carolina. When the Appalachians were born, they were larger than the current-day Himalayas and marched right down to the Atlantic. Erosion has slowly worn the Appalachians down to a fraction of their original size and the slow washing of mountains into the ocean has made the coastal area into a bland level plain.   If you want your story to have an interesting U.S. Atlantic coast, just have it take place a few hundred million years ago! If that is not practical, you'll have to move it to the Pacific Coast where plate tectonics and a much younger and more active geology make for a far more interesting coastline.

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Clifton53
Date: 14 May 03 - 09:44 PM

Near Sandy Hook is a small group of hills called The Highlands, N.J. and they probably are the highest point on the Jersey shore.I doubt they are more than a few hundred feet, but they were high enough for the Twin Lights lighthouse, which is now a historical site.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Dani
Date: 14 May 03 - 11:55 PM

There are some bouldery places near Fort Fisher, NC. Scrub oaks, sculptural, bowing and shaping to the wind and sea are all over there, but not much taller than I am....

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 03 - 12:52 AM

Block Island east of Long Island Sound in Block Island Sound (Rhode Island) is quite a rocky bluff. Startlingly so. Here is a photo. And here (gorgeous!) Here is a book with good cover art. USGS 15 minute map.

Must it be on the coast proper? How about upriver a bit, such as the Palisades along the Hudson northwest of New York City?

Oooo, just looking at these images reminds me why I loved taking road trips on my days off when I worked in New York City!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 03 - 12:54 AM

BTW--my "road trip" past Block Island was on a Ferry! No flying cars, a la Harry Potter! :-)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: RangerSteve
Date: 15 May 03 - 06:29 AM

The New Jersey coast is mostly built up, with expensive beach houses or resort towns. Two exceptions are Island Beach State Park and Sandy Hook, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. Both places are pretty much untouched by civilization. The south Jersey beaches are pretty wide, the northern beaches are eroded with the ocean getting dangerously close to the towns. Our lighthouses are really nice.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: MMario
Date: 15 May 03 - 11:05 AM

if you want the rocky bluffs etc better to situate the story Long Island and northwars - rather then south.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Peter Woodruff
Date: 15 May 03 - 07:52 PM

You are writing about the Maine Coastline. Sort of like the movie Message In A Bottle filmed in Maine about a story that happened on the Carolina shore.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Matt_R
Date: 15 May 03 - 08:09 PM

Yep, all we have here in North Carolina are sandy beaches...the entire Eastern NC coastal plain is nothing but sand.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Bobert
Date: 15 May 03 - 08:14 PM

Actaully, there is a lot of unmolested beach south of Ocean City, Maryland 100 miles down the Eastern Shore coast line in Virginia. One can still drive over the causeway from Chincoteague to Assateague Island, park in the parking lot, walk 1/2 hour north or south and have the beach to yourself. And one heck of a nice beach, with white sand and lots of shells and wildlife.

Now travel so 40 miles south and there are miles and miles of beach that you can't really get to readily along the barrier islands. You need to have a boat that you can anchor and use a dingy to get to them. And that's fir real!

The rest of the East coast is over developed. As a kif I stayed up on Long Beach Island in New Jersey. It still had miles of undeveloped beaches. No more. Every inch is spoken for...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Clifton53
Date: 15 May 03 - 10:10 PM

Sad to say, Bobert is right, except for Sandy Hook and Island Beach State park as Ranger Steve mentioned, you'll pay to get on the beach in Jersey, and Island Beach fills up fast on a summer day, so if you ain't early you ain't gettin' in. Not what Mother Nature intended at all.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Bobert
Date: 15 May 03 - 10:42 PM

Yeah, Clifton53, the Jersey shore is, ahhhh, history. Too bad. I have lots of good memries there. Barnagat Bay, clamming, that 12 mile stretch from Surf City to Banaget Light House. Nuthin but dunes, beahes 'n surf! No more....

Yeah the lower Maryland and Virginia Eastern Shore coast line is all that is left from Florida to Maine and I hope it stays that way. But it won't. The "Conservancy" Foundation will come in and mess it up in the name opf preservation. Guarenteed!

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Margo
Date: 15 May 03 - 11:03 PM

You all are wonderful! I have looked at some photos and come to the conclusion that I can get what I want from the tree lined bluffs in Chesapeake bay. The story takes place in colonial America and I am guessing that there were probably more trees back then. Even so, I imagine the shore along the ocean was probably much the way it is now.



I can't tell you how great it is to be able to get online and just ask someone! Gotta go, my ever so energetic daughter is in trouble... Margo

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Doug_Remley
Date: 16 May 03 - 01:02 AM

If you want craggy bluffs plunging into deep water and secret castles on islands, the Hudson Highlands near West point are a good locale. Even has Jackson Whites dating back to the King's English if you want to interview. Just a few miles north of what once was the Bronk's farm.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: fretless
Date: 16 May 03 - 01:34 PM

"I am guessing that there were probably more trees back then." Not necessarily. The early colonial farmers seem to have cleared the forests pretty quickly. This is a relatively new understanding of the colonial-era environment that has emerged within the last few decades. The Northeast, especially, is considerably more forested today than it was during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. If you're thinking eastern forests, or even simply more trees, you'll probably want to set the tale before 1700 and maybe even before 1650/75. Otherwise, you're probably looking at cleared farmland rather than woods.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: TIA
Date: 16 May 03 - 01:52 PM

Hey all you Joisey folks, you're missing the best spot on the shore. No beach fee (at least in the State Park), woods right up to the dunes, historic lighthouse, unbelievable birding, and TIA grew up there.

Cape May Point!

Ahh Sh_t, I open my big mouth, and now everyone knows.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Clifton53
Date: 16 May 03 - 04:33 PM

And don't forget those sunsets on "The Point"

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Clifton53
Date: 19 May 03 - 10:55 AM

I'm in error, the killer sunsets are at Sunset Beach in Cape May County, " the Point" is a left turn nearing the tip of the cape, heading for the lighthouse. There is a flag lowering ceremony every evening at Sunset Beach.

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: GUEST,Ron Olesko
Date: 19 May 03 - 03:20 PM

My favorite spot in NJ is Ocean Grove. It is not the place to go if your idea of "Jersey Shore" is boardwalks, amusment parks and cheap bars.   A quiet beach with a wonderful historic commmunity.

Ron

Subject: RE: BS: US east coast shorelines
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 May 03 - 08:21 AM

Sandy Hook seems your best bet, and it's a famous landmark for ships approaching or leaving the New York City area:

Am
Soon she'll bite the swells, the breeze is singin',
--------F
We'll be sinkin' Sandy Hook in the morn,
Em-Am
So, walk 'er up, me lads, the pawls are ringin',
F ------------------------------Am
Soon we'll be rounding ol' Cape Horn.

The above is adapted from a poem by Lincoln Colcord (1883-1947) called "Windlass Chanty."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble