Mantoloking

Mantoloking — Estates on the Narrowest Barrier

Mantoloking is where the Ocean County barrier reaches its most extreme narrowness — in the 1920 aerial you can count the street widths on one hand across the entire island. Grand estates sat on lots that were simultaneously oceanfront and bayfront. The 1920 view shows this extraordinary community of millionaires' summer homes squeezed between water and water. By 1933, the summer hurricane had overwashed the island at its narrowest points. The 1962 aerial, taken days after the Ash Wednesday Storm, shows the devastating reality: the storm completely breached the barrier at multiple points, flooding most of the estates and temporarily creating new inlets through Mantoloking's streets.