Posted on August 26, 2026
The navigable route through Townsends Inlet is disappearing beneath one of the Shore’s most persistent forces: Moving sand.
Sea Isle City’s southern beach has advanced roughly 40 feet into the inlet in about a month, CBS Philadelphia reported.
The migration has squeezed larger boats toward the Townsends Inlet Bridge and made an already difficult passage more dangerous.
The bridge was built to accommodate exactly the traffic now being squeezed.
Cape May County constructed the Townsends Inlet Bridge in 1939 as part of the new Ocean Drive linking the barrier islands.
The bridge opened with its single-leaf bascule — or drawbridge — in 1940, according to Cape May County records.
When closed, it provides about 23 feet of vertical clearance. When raised, it opens a route for larger commercial and recreational vessels.
Keeping that route navigable once required regular intervention.
Townsends Inlet was repeatedly dredged from around 1950 through just after the bicentennial, including maintenance intended to preserve a usable channel.
The purpose began to shift in 1978.
Major dredging projects that year and again in 1984 removed roughly 1.4 million cubic yards of inlet sand for beach nourishment.
The sand helped rebuild shorelines, but the projects did not establish a permanent federal navigation program.
The same distinction remained visible decades later.
Avalon removed approximately 740,000 cubic yards from Townsends Inlet in 2015 and placed it on beaches between Ninth and 23rd streets.
It may improve portions of the waterway temporarily, but its stated purpose is storm protection — not maintaining a defined navigation channel.
That turbulent management is now confronting boaters.
