Barnegat Light

Barnegat Light — Old Barney and the Shrinking Inlet

The "Old Barney" lighthouse, built in 1858, was already fighting for its life by 1920 — the aerial shows the 172-foot tower standing at the very tip of the inlet, with the ocean advancing steadily on its south side. Barnegat Inlet, one of the most powerful on the East Coast, naturally migrates southward, and the 1920 view shows how little beach remained between the lighthouse and the inlet's edge. By 1933, the inlet had shifted further after the August hurricane. The 1944 aerial — including the remarkable blimp photograph taken October 29, 1944, just days after the Great Atlantic Hurricane — shows extraordinary storm damage at the inlet tip, with sand-stripped dunes clearly visible from above. By 1962, the Ash Wednesday Storm had reshaped the inlet again. The lighthouse, eventually protected by a jetty, stands surrounded by a landscape completely transformed from what the 1920 aerial shows.