Cape May Point

Cape May Point — The Tip of New Jersey

Cape May Point is the southernmost tip of New Jersey, where the Atlantic Ocean meets Delaware Bay. The Cape May Point Lighthouse, built in 1859, stands here, and in the 1920 aerial it is surrounded by considerably more land than it would be decades later. Cape May Point has suffered catastrophic erosion — the lighthouse was once nearly a mile from the water and by the late 20th century sat very close to the eroding bluff. The 1920 aerial shows the lighthouse with substantial upland around it. By 1933, erosion was accelerating. The 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane struck Cape May Point directly, causing severe erosion that permanently moved the shoreline dramatically closer to the lighthouse. These three aerials document one of the most extreme erosion stories on the entire Atlantic coast.