Edge Atlas
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Material Information

Title:
Edge Atlas
Series Title:
On the Water Palisade Bay
Creator:
Catherine Seavitt
Adam Yarinsky
Publication Date:
Language:
English

Notes

Abstract:
In the past century or so, once gradual adjustments to the coastline due to geological and climatological processes gave way to more frequent and more dramatic adjustments due to artificial processes. It was during that time that the metropolitan New York region underwent a number of important changes including major growth in its population, the peak and subsequent decline of local industry, shifts in maritime use, and the establishment of the highway system. With these historical changes to the urban environment, the coastline of the NY-NJ Upper Bay was likewise reshaped. The line drawing at right illustrates the state of the coastline and the shallow underwater flats decade by decade through the twentieth century. The years between 1918 and 1928 saw extensive construction of piers along the eastern waterfront of Staten Island and elsewhere around the harbor. By 1944 significant filling of land on the New Jersey side had begun, including the development of the Military Ocean Terminal, and throughout the harbor shoals and flats were made smaller or eliminated altogether by dredging. Between 1967 and 1977, the maritime industry recentered itself in New Jersey, resulting in the construction of a second large landfill pier in Bayonne and the removal of the piers lining Manhattan. The end of the century saw continued disintegration of piers in Brooklyn and Staten Island. While the New York waterfront today remains a zone in transition, for our purposes, charting its current shape has been quite informative. But to fully understand the state of the current coastline one must look beyond the shape of the line itself both to its material qualities and its sectional characteristics

Record Information

Source Institution:
Florida International University
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Aggregations:
Sea Level Rise