Page 35: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2023)

Preserving an iconic beach for future generations

By JoAnne Castagna, Ed.D.

hen Rifat Salim came to the United States from

Pakistan as a young girl with her mother and siblings to reunite with her father after years of

W being a part, one of the ? rst places he suggested they visit is Coney Island, a famous beach and amusement park destination in Brooklyn, New York City that’s visited by more than 5 million people annually.

She said, “Me and my brother and sisters were excited to go to the beach. We were wearing our ethnic clothes because we don’t wear bikinis. When we got there, we ran towards the beach and put our feet in the cold water. I remember to this day the feeling of water and sand slipping away from my feet.

It was a wonderful experience.”

Coney Island was Salim’s ? rst impression of America and would continue to play a role in her life. After getting her citizenship, she became an engineer and now works for the U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers, New York District, an agency that’s helped to preserve this beach for future generations, including her own children.

The Army Corps does this not just because the beach is his- toric, but more importantly because it plays a role in protect- ing the community from coastal ? ooding and sea level rise.

Coney Island, is a peninsular neighborhood of around 115,277 residents and is located on the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The area is about 4 miles long and a half a mile wide and includes Coney Island

Proper with Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east and Sea Gate, a private gated community, to its west.

The waterways in and around the peninsula include the Atlan- tic Ocean and Lower New York Bay to the south and west and the Gravesend Bay and Coney Island Creek to the northwest.

Coney Island Beach extends 2.7-miles along the south shore of the peninsula and has a boardwalk that extends from Coney

Island Proper to Brighton Beach.

The beach turns 100-years-old this and year and for the past century, the Army Corps has played a signi? cant role in pre- serving it in collaboration with partnering agencies. Follow- ing is a brief history of the famous destination and the work the Army Corps has performed and continues to do today.

00

THAT WAS THEN

It the late 19th Century, Coney Island was America’s biggest www.marinetechnologynews.com 35

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