Sunday, November 06, 2011
Cliffwood Beach NJ
Cliffwood Beach Boardwalk
One of the most startling Jersey postcard images I've come across. I spent a lot of time on Cliffwood Beach on Raritan Bay in the 1990's. It was undeveloped, purposefully unkempt, clearly restored from some earlier use. The place didn't look quite "natural." But nothing was there except an unpaved parking lot, small tidal creek, gooey clay deposits with preserved mussel beds embedded in them, some old pilings. It was a nice, quiet walking, sitting & thinking kind of beach a short drive south of Raritan River on Route 35. I treasured the place. I could get there from the Woodbridge Pearl Arts Store in about 20 minutes, often drove down straight from my job in the early evening, picking up a fast food supper on the way. Hundreds of Horseshoe Crabs came ashore in May to mate, with a frenzy of birds feeding on the tiny eggs. I always drove down to see that. Many times in summer I was the only person there. Even after I learned a public pool had once been located somewhere along the beach I had no idea it also had a boardwalk until I saw this postcard.
Labels: boardwalks, jersey shore, postcard
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
You already know that the Aberdeen side of the beach was naturalized. Dunes were encouraged and did help to protect the beach for a long time. But the last few series of storms did a lot of damage. Much of the dunes were washed away, now every storm or high astrological tide washes the beach up on the road, its only a matter of time before we have to move the road. Route 35 floods badly there as well, we're suppose to be getting funding to fix it...I hope they throw some of that into beach restoration. You should visit, you'd be surprised at the change. There's a sea walk now on top of the old sea wall. The Old Bridge side had a very nice park, since closed due to the discovery of mercury...or do you already know that, I might have read it here!
# posted by 
: 2:43 PM
: 2:43 PM
http://natureontheedgenyc.blogspot.com/2011/11/three-little-birds-along-cliffwood.html#!/2011/11/three-little-birds-along-cliffwood.html
# posted by : 6:37 PM
: 6:37 PM
Lived here most of my life, including the 60's. It was a great town to live in. They tried to restore some of the beach (pool and Cat and The Fiddle), but that ended in 1970.
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